54 PLUVIALIN^:. VANELLUS. 



forehead black, with a white band, the hind-head grey; a 

 black band from the bill under the eye to the ear-coverts ; a 

 ring of white including the throat, succeeded by a broad ring 

 of black ; lower parts of the body white. Young without the 

 black collar and bands on the head, in other respects like the 

 adult, but tinged with brown above, and having all the feathers 

 margined with a paler tint. 



Male, 6 T V, . ., 4 T 4 5 , T \ and , 1, f y , T \. Female, 6. 



A young individual of this species, killed at Shoreham in 

 Sussex, is in the possession of Mr H. Doubleday of Epping. 

 The species is not uncommon on the Continent, and appears 

 to be as extensively distributed as the rest. It is said to be 

 less frequently seen on the sea-coast than on the banks of 

 rivers, where it breeds, laying on the sand its four eggs, 

 which are somewhat more than an inch long, pale greyish- 

 yellow, dotted with blackish-brown and bluish-grey. 



Charadrius minor, Temm. Man. d'Ornith. ii. 542. Chara- 

 drius minor, Little Sand-Plover, MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, iv. 



GENUS XCI. VANELLUS. LAPWING. 



The Lapwings differ from the Plovers chiefly in having 

 a small hind toe, scutella instead of scales on the front of 

 the tarsi, and in the form of the wing, which, in place of 

 being narrow and acuminate, is broad toward the end, and 

 rounded. They vary in size from that of a Ringed Sand- 

 Plover to that of a Whimbrel. The body is moderately full ; 

 the neck of ordinary length ; the head rather small, com- 

 pressed, much rounded above. Bill rather short, straight, 

 slender, compressed ; upper mandible with the dorsal line 

 straight and slightly declinate for two-thirds of its length, 

 then convexo-declinate, the edges soft and slightly inflected, 

 the nasal groove long, the tip rather obtuse ; lower mandible 

 with the angle rather long and narrow, the dorsal line as- 

 cending and slightly convex, the sides concave at the base, 

 the edges inflected, the tip narrow, but blunt ; the gape-line 

 straight. Mouth extremely narrow ; palate with two longi- 

 tudinal ridges, anteriorly with a papillate ridge ; tongue 

 narrow, channelled above, trigonal, tapering ; oesophagus 

 narrow ; proventriculus oblong ; stomach a roundish, large, 

 very muscular gizzard, with thick and very firm lateral mus- 

 cles, radiated tendons, and dense, longitudinally rugous epi- 



