510 
CHESTED LAPWING. 
This elegant species has the occipital featliers 
greatly elongated, slender, and recurved at the 
tip : the top of the head, the crest, the fore-part of 
the neck, and the breast, glossy black : the upper 
parts of the body are deep green, with brighter 
reflections : the sides of the neck, the belly, the 
abdomen, and the base of the tail, ai’e pure white : 
the tail-feathers are tipped with a large black spot, 
the outer one excepted : its under coverts are 
rufous : the beak is dusky : the feet during the 
winter are red-brown ; in the summer brownish 
red: its length is thirteen inches and a half. The 
female has the black on the throat and on the 
breast less deep. The young have the occipital 
crest shorter : beneath the eyes they are dusky : 
the throat is varied with black and grey-brown : 
the whole of the feathers of the upper and under 
parts of the plumage are tipped with yellow- 
ochre : the feet are olive-grey. 
It varies accidentally in being found of a pure 
white, or yellowish white, with the whole of the 
proper colours slightly indicated ; also mottled in 
various manners with white. 
The Lapwing is common in most parts of Eu- 
rope, particularly Holland: it frequents the damp 
shores of lakes and rivers, and also fens, humid 
fields, or heaths. It changes its place according 
to the season, retiring southward in the autumn, 
at which time it associates in large flocks of four 
or five hundred, or more, and frequents marshy 
places : they are then esteemed good food, and 
many are captured for the table ; the eggs are also 
