﻿Beneficial to Agriculture. 13 



occasionally laid. They vary much in colour, from greenish-olive to 

 pale ochreous and sometimes light blue-grey ; they are spotted 

 and blotched with brownish-black. At the approach of danger the 

 female runs off the nest for some distance before taking flight, and 

 the male bird flies round the intruder, going through an extra- 

 ordinary aerial performance accompanied with incessant cries. 



The farmer has no better friend than the Lapwing, as its food 

 chiefly comprises injurious insects and their larvae, such as 

 leather- jackets and wire-worms, also slugs and worms. 



The adult male has the crown and long erectile crest green- 

 black ; back and wings metallic olive-green, glossed with purple 

 and bronze ; tail white, with a broad sub-terminal black band ; 

 nape and side of head white ; chin, throat and upper breast blue- 

 black ; lower breast and belly white ; both upper and under 

 tail-coverts chestnut ; bill olive-black ; legs and feet lilac-pink ; 

 claws black ; irides dark brown. 



The sexes may be readily distinguished by the great difference 

 in the shape of the wings. The primaries of the male, when ex- 

 tended, form a rounded paddle-shaped outline, while the secondaries 

 are much shorter. The expanded wing of the female forms a 

 continuous line, as the primaries are much shorter, giving the wing 

 a comparatively narrow appearance. In the male the first 

 primary equals the seventh, while in the female the first and fourth 

 are equal in length. The male has the crest much longer and the 

 bill shorter than the female. 



The wings are so dissimilar in shape that the sexes may be 

 readily noted while a flock of these birds pass overhead ; in fact, 

 they can be always identified when on the wing, as the great 

 difference is so apparent. 



STONB-CUELEW. (PL IV.) 



CEdicnemus o&dicnemus. 



The Stone-Curlew, also known as the Thick-Knee or Norfolk 

 Plover, usually arrives in this country in April and departs 

 again in October, but during mild winters a few remain in the 

 warmer districts. It is locally distributed over the southern and 

 eastern counties, as far north as Yorkshire on suitable chalk wolds, 

 heaths, and sandy soils. In Scotland it is extremely rare, and in 

 Ireland less than a dozen examples have been noted. 



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