ORALLY. 



99 



the accompanying cut. Together with Plumanellus sociaUlis, from Magelhaen s 

 Strait, and the surf-bird (Aphriza virgatd), found on our western coast up to Alaska, 

 they constitute the sub-family Arenariina3. The Ha3matopodina3 consists of a single 

 genus the different forms of which are distributed over nearly all the shores of the 

 globe, except the very Arctic regions. There are two styles of them, one black 

 and white, like the European oyster-catcher on the foregoing page, and another 

 wholly black, both with intensely red beaks and reddish flesh-colored feet. They are 



FIG. 45. Vanellus vanellus, peewit, lapwing. 



very noisy and shy, and make themselves disagreeably conspicuous to the shore-hunter, 

 warning all other birds with their penetrating cry. 



The Charadriinae proper are cosmopolitan in their distribution, embracing the dif- 

 ferent kinds of plovers, being the most numerous group of the family, and are partic- 

 ularly characterized by the form of the bill, which is somewhat like that of a pigeon, 

 convex anteriorly and restricted at base. Being well-known birds we shall save space 

 for more unusual forms by only referring to the drawings (Fig. 42), and by quoting 

 the following, from Seebohm, concerning the peewit or lapwing ( Vanellus vanellus, 

 Fig. 45), which is a strictly Palaearctic bird, sometimes straggling to Greenland and 

 Alaska. " The flight of this bird is very erratic and peculiar. Its wings are very 



