Lapwing. 389 



the air for ever.* Montagu tells us that in his time it was 

 sometimes called ' Peeseweep.' This is one of those birds which 

 wears a spur or horny tubercle on the carpal joint or elbow of 

 the wing, but which is more especially noticeable in the fine 

 species, Hoplopterus spinosus or ' Zic-zac,' of which I shot many 

 specimens in Egypt. In Germany it is Gehaubte Kiebitz ; in 

 France, Vanneau huppe, ( Crested Lapwing ;' in Italy, Pavoncella 

 Comune, sharing the name with the Peacock; in Spain, Ave 

 fria, ' Bird of Tribute,' and also Judia, ' Jewess,' probably from 

 the same tradition as that of Lancashire mentioned above ; but 

 in Portugal it is Bibes, from the Moorish word Beebet, at Casa 

 Blanca on the coast of Morocco ; but in the North of Portugal it 

 is known as Gallispo, from gallus, ( a cock,' in allusion to the 

 crest-plume.*f* 



141. OYSTER-CATCHER (Hcematopus ostralegus). 



This robust powerful species is a true salt-water bird, and 

 seems to have no place in our inland county : but an account of 

 its capture at Bradford on Avon in September, 1859, as recorded 

 in a newspaper at the time, permitted me to include it in the 

 Wiltshire catalogue in my former papers on the birds of the 

 county. More recently Mr. Grant has recorded a second instance 

 of a Wiltshire-killed specimen which came into his hands for 

 preservation. It was taken in August, 1877, at Enford, a spot 

 even farther from the sea than Bradford ; but doubtless in each 

 case the birds wandered up the rivers on which they were re- 

 spectively found until they lost themselves, and knew not how 

 to return : but how they came to follow the rivers so far from 

 their haunts on the seashore, and what they found to subsist on 

 during the journey, I am at a loss to conjecture. Its plumage is 

 striking, from the pleasing contrast of black and white which it 

 displays : and its bright orange-red bill, of a peculiar wedge- 

 shaped form, to enable it to wrench open the shell-fish which 

 constitutes its food, and its vermilion legs, give it a handsome 



Dyer's Folk-Lore,' p. 96. 



f W. C. Tait on Birds of Portugal in His for 1887, p. 83. 



