84 NATURAL HISTORY [Birds. 



GENUS XIX. SANDPIPERS. 



Gen. Char. Bill straight, slender, and not an inch and a-half long ; nostrils 

 small ; tongue slender ; toes divided, generally the two outmost connected at 

 bottom by a small membrane. 



Species 1. The Lapwing. 



Lapwing, Bastard Plover, or Pewit, Wil. Orn. 307. Raii Syn. Av. 110. 

 TringaVanellus, Lin. Sys. 248. Brit. Zool. 360. Sib. Scot. 19. Ore. Tee- 

 whoop. 



THE Lapwing is of those birds which, in a great measure, 

 withdraw themselves from us in the winter season. I say in 

 a great measure only, for I am informed by a clergyman, 

 sometime minister of Sanda, they are to be found there in 

 small numbers all winter. His words are, " I have seen them 

 " in the months of November, December, and January, in 

 " the bay of Otterswick, and all round the island. This 

 " island lies low : is generally flat, and much warmer than 

 " any of the others ; almost all a sandy beach from the point 

 " of Spurness, north and by west, to the bay of Stove, lying 

 " south and by east, which is near 1 two-thirds of the circum- 

 " ference of the whole island." The lapwing is the most 

 beautiful of the genus which frequent these shores. The head 

 is adorned with a fine black crest, erected when the bird 

 walks, and depressed at other times ; the head and bill black ; 

 the back and coverts of a most beautiful green, changing to 



