230 



Length 12 ; tail 375 ; wing 7'75 : tarsus 2-6 ; bill from 

 gape 1'3. 



Distribution. Throughout the Ganges drainage, but not 0*1 the 

 Indus or its tributaries nor within the Bombay Presidency ; 

 this Plover is found on the Nerbudda as far west as the neigh- 

 bourhood of Jridore, throughout the Central Provinces, in Bengal 

 and Orissa, and as far south as the Godavari ; also in Assam, 

 Manipur, and Burma, extending to JSiarn and Southern China. 



Habits, $~c. This bird keeps to the beds of the larger rivers, and 

 has a noisy call, not unlike that of Sarcogrammus indicus. It is 

 generally seen singly or in pairs, selcfom in small flocks. It breeds 

 in Northern India in March or early in April, and lays four eggs, 

 very much like those of the Red-v\attled Lapwing, but slightly 

 smaller, measuring on an average T45 by 1-07. 



Genus VANELLUS, Brisson, 1760. 



The common Lapwing of Europe and Northern Asia forms a 

 genus by itself, distinguished by the long recurved crest, the 

 absence of either lappet or wing-spur, and peculiar coloration, 

 without any white on the wing outside. 



The bill is of the usual type in Plovers, moderate in length and 

 rather slender, with a flattened culinen and slightly swollen ter- 

 mination or dertrum ; the linear nostril in a groove that extends 

 more than half the length of the bill. The wings are slightly 

 rounded, the 2nd or 3rd primary longest. Tarsus of moderate 

 length, reticulated all round ; a small hind toe. 



1436. Vanellus vulgaris. The Lapwing or Peewit. 



Tringa vanellus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 248 (1766). 



Vanellus vulgaris, Beckst. Orn. Taschenb. ii, p. 313 (1803) ; Dresser, 



B. Eur. vii, p. 545, pi. 531 ; Hume, Cat. no. 851 ; Biddulph, Ibis, 



1881, p. 94; Scully, ibid. p. 587 ; Reid, S. F. x, p. 65; Barney 



Birds Bom. p, 332 ; St. John, Ibis, 1881), p. 17(3. 

 Vanellus cristatus, Wolf $ Meyer, Naturg. Voy, Deutschl. i, p. 110 



(1805) ; Blyth, Cat. p. 261 ; Irby, Ibis, 1861, p. 238 ; Jertloti, 



B. 1. iii, p. 643; Stoliczka, J. A. 8. B. xxxvii, pt. 2, p. 70; 



Hume $ Henders. Lali. to Yark. p. 286; Hume, ti. F. i, p. 231 ; 



Adam, ibid. p. 394 ; Butler, S. F. vii, p. 186 ; C. H. T. Marshall, 



Ibis, 1884, p. 423 ; Seebohm, Charadr. p. 210. 

 Vanellus vanellus, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xxiv, p. 166. 



Coloration. In winter the crown is dark brown, passing into black 

 on the crest ; sides of face and supercilia, sides of neck, chin, throat, 

 and fore neck white, tinged with buff and more or less speckled 

 and blotched with blackish ; back, rump, and tertiaries glossy 

 olive-green, some of the feathers generally with fulvous edges ; 

 scapulars brighter green, passing at their tips into bronze-red and 

 lilac ; wing-coverts darker and bluer than back ; primaries and 

 secondaries black or blackish, the tips of the first 4 or 5 primaries 

 whitish, passing into ashy brown, bases of the secondaries white ; 

 upper tail-coverts cinnamon ; tail white for more than the basal 



