388 Charadriadce. 



various devices it performs to attract the attention of the intruder 

 on its nest, and entice him and his dog away from its young, are 

 so well known that I need not further describe them. As regards 

 feeding, it is altogether a nocturnal bird. In Ancient Egypt it 

 is the head of a Lapwing that is so often represented in the 

 hieroglyphic figures, and on the walls of the tombs and temples, 

 upon the 'augural staff' of the gods ; but though thus honoured 

 by the divinities, I am not aware that any mummied specimens 

 have been found, or that its body was ever embalmed. It derives 

 its generic name, Vanellus, and the French Vanneau, from 

 vannus, ' a fan,' in allusion to the peculiar slow flapping motion 

 of its long wings. The French also call it Dixhuit, as we call it 

 'Peewit,' in imitation of its note. In Sweden it is known as 

 Vvp<*>> and is one of the first of the migratory birds that appears 

 in the spring, and as it often happens that a sharp frost sets in 

 after their arrival, the peasants call such a frost Vip-winter, or 

 * Lap wing- winter,' when the birds suffer severely. It has been 

 observed there that, if they fly away altogether, the frost will be 

 of long continuance, but if they remain it will soon be over.* 

 In England, in old times, it bore the name of ' Egret,' which has 

 occasioned no little confusion to modern ornithologists ; for when 

 we read of a thousand Egrets being served up at a single enter- 

 tainment (temp. Henry IV.), we marvel at the abundance of a 

 bird now so rare in this country ; but when we remember the 

 long tuft on the head of the Lapwing, we see how that bird also 

 became thus designated. Its flesh was highly esteemed for the 

 table, both in this country and in France ; in the latter they have 

 a proverb : 



' Qui n'a mange grive ni vanneau 

 N'a jamais mange bon morceau.' 



In Lancashire they are called the 'Seven Whistlers' and 'the 

 ' Wandering Jews/ and are looked upon with horror, and their 

 cry listened to with dismay as the omen of ill-luck ; for there is 

 a tradition that they contain the souls of those Jews who assisted 

 at the Crucifixion, and in consequence were doomed to float in 

 * Lloyd's ' Scandinavian Adventures,' vol. ii., p. 370. 



