196 



LOBIVANELLUS. 



Literature. Plates.— Fraser, Zoologia Typica, pi. 64. 



Habits.— Biittikofer, Notes from the Leyden Museum, 1885, p. 236; Hartert, Journ. Orn. 



1886, p. 609. 

 Eggs. — Unknown. 



Specific 

 characters. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



The Black-shouldered or White-crowned Wattled Lapwing is a very aberrant member 

 of the genus, and may be diagnosed in many ways. In no other Lapwing does the white 

 on the forehead extend over the crown and down the nape. It is the only species of the 

 genus with black wing-coverts. It is also the only Lapwing which possesses wattles and 

 spurs, but has no hind toe. An equally good diagnosis is primary-coverts and innermost 

 primaries white. Its legs and feet are yellowish green. 



This species is very rare in collections, and was originally described by Gould from 

 the Niger. Biittikofer obtained several examples in Western Liberia, which are now in the 

 Leyden Museum ; and it has been found in various localities in Senegambia (Rochebrune, 

 ' Faune de la Senegambie,' p. 283). Du Chaillu obtained it in Lower Guinea on the 

 Kamma (Heuglin, Orn. N.O.-Afr. ii. p. 1007). I have an example obtained by Petit and 

 Lucan on the Loango Coast, where it was also obtained by Palkenstein (Reichenow, Journ. 

 Orn. 1877, p. 11). Its alleged occurrence on the island of Fernando Po appears to be a 

 myth. The examples described by Gould, and obtained by Capt. Allen, were procured on 

 the Niger (Allen and Thomson, Narr. Exp. River Niger, ii. p. 508), and not on the island 

 of Fernando Po, as erroneously stated by Fraser, though they were exhibited by Gould at 

 the meeting of the Zoological Society of London on the 10th of June, 1834, accompanied 

 by some other objects of natural history from Fernando Po, an accident which appears to 

 have given rise to the error. There can be little doubt that it has occurred as far east as 

 the river Dender in Sennar (Antinori and Salvadori, Viagg. Bogos &c. p. 144), but it 

 is somewhat doubtfully recorded from the Cape Colony. I have seen examples from the 

 Transvaal, and it has been procured on the Zambesi and its tributaries in Albert's Land 

 (Holub, Beitr. Orn. Siidafr. p. 240). 



It is said to frequent the sandy banks of rivers, where it feeds upon insects and 

 small fish. 



Although it has lost its hind toe it is probably nearest allied to L. senegalensis and 

 L. lateralis, with both of which it agrees in having a white forehead and crown. Very 

 little importance can, however, be attached to a character which is not found in the young 

 as well as in the adult ; and the Black-shouldered Wattled Lapwing must be regarded as a 

 highly differentiated species, whose affinities it is very difficult to determine. 



