Genus VANELLUS or LAPWINGS. 



Type VANELLUS CRIST ATUS. 



Vanellus of Brisson (1760). — The birds comprising the 

 present genus are characterised by having at least (in most cases 

 half) the basal third of the central rectrices white, and in having 

 no lobes on the side of the head. The wings are usually broad 

 and blunt, sometimes armed with a spur ; the tail is moderately 

 long and nearly square. The bill is typical in shape; nostrils 

 placed in a deep groove. Three toes in front, eight of the species 

 with no hind toe, six with a small hind toe. 



This genus is composed of fourteen species and subspecies 

 confined to the temperate and tropical portions of the Patearctic, 

 Oriental, Ethiopian, and Neotropical regions. Two species are 

 British, one a common resident in, and the other a very rare 

 straggler to, our islands. 



The Lapwings are dwellers on the open plains, birds of the 

 moors and commons, fields and downs ; some species are more 

 maritime during winter. They are birds of somewhat slow and 

 irregular flight, and progress on the ground by running or walking. 

 They are somewhat nocturnal in their habits. Their notes are 

 shrill and plaintive. They subsist on worms, moUusks, insects, 

 larv£e, etc. They make scanty nests on the ground, and their 

 eggs, pyriform in shape and four in number, are richly spotted. 

 They are monogamous ; and more or less gregarious, and social 

 always. 



