100 



NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



long and broad, and it flaps them in a regular, sedate manner. Now it soars upwards 

 for a few yards, seemingly without effort, then flapping its broad and rounded wings 

 it wheels round and round ; then it darts rapidly down as if hurling itself to the 

 ground, and then, mounting the air again, with easy grace flies in everchanging course, 

 darting, wheeling, trembling, and reeling, as though beating time with its pinions to 

 its wailing and expressive cries. The lapwing becomes particularly clamorous at 

 night, and obtains much of its food in the dusk of the evening. At all hours its wild 

 expressive call may be heard, as it floats on ever-moving pinions above its favorite 

 haunts. Its common note resembles the syllables pee-weet, or weet-a-weet, pee-weet-weet, 

 from which is derived one of its best known names. The eggs of the lapwing are 

 highly prized as articles of food, and a regular and extensive trade is done in them. 

 Thousands find their way to the London markets in the season, and fetch from four to 



r 



FIG. 46. Hoplopterus spinosus, spur-winged plover. 



ten shillings a dozen." This bird is one of the few waders that show metallic colors 

 in their plumage, the general color of the upper parts being a greenish to coppery 

 bronze. 



Remarkable for the strong and sharp spur at the bend of the wing is the so-called 

 spur-winged plover (Hoplopterus spinosus}, hairbrown, black and white, a native of 

 Africa, where it is one of the commonest birds of the Nile valley, but it occurs also 

 in southeastern Europe and the intermediate countries of western Asia. It claims 

 the distinction of being the leech-eater ' or 'trochilos' of Herodotus, whose de- 

 scription, which is as follows, may rather belong to the black-headed plover, or, as it 

 is frequently called, 'the crocodile bird' (Plumanus wgyptius), also a native c 

 Egypt. "As the crocodile lives chiefly on the river, it has the inside of its mouth 

 constantly covered with leeches ; hence it happens that, while all other birds and 



