204 



VANELLUS. 



Characters 

 of Lap- 

 wings. 



Characters 

 of Plovers. 



Shape of 

 wings an 

 unreliable 

 character. 



Colour 

 of tail 

 reliable. 



The typical Lapwing has broad blunt wings, long secondaries, and short primaries, 

 the first primary shorter than the second and third — characters denoting resident rather 

 than migratory habits. It is a somewhat large bird, with a wing measuring from the 

 carpal joint 7 to 10 inches, has a scutellated tarsus, and is furnished with one or other of 

 various appendages, such as a spur to its wing, a wattle to its face, a crest to its crown, 

 and a hind toe to its foot, sometimes with all of them — apparently denoting a comparative 

 security from enemies obtained by living in places where there is plenty of cover. 



The typical Plover, on the other hand, has narrow pointed wings, short secondaries 

 and long primaries, with the first primary the longest — characters denoting migratory 

 habits. It is a smaller bird, with a wing measuring only from 4 to 8 inches from the 

 carpal joint, has a reticulated tarsus, and is furnished with neither spur, wattle, crest, nor 

 hind toe — apparently denoting life in an exposed situation, where the exhibition of 

 conspicuous plumage or the display of family quarrels would attract the attention of ever- 

 watchful enemies. 



Characters so obviously affected by the every-day life of a bird can scarcely be 

 regarded as of much genetic value, and unfortunately the Lapwings intergrade with the 

 Plovers to such an extent that it is very difficult to deal with the sixty or more species 

 comprised in the two groups in a perfectly satisfactory manner. 



In attempting to diagnose the thirteen species which are here included in the genus 

 Vanellus, it is admitted that the external characters which distinguish them from their 

 nearest allies are possibly arbitrary, and that the group may have to be rearranged on 

 different lines when the anatomical and other internal characters have been investigated. 



The thirteen or fourteen species which have lobes or wattles at the base of the bill 

 may be conveniently disposed of in the genus Lobivanellus. 



The five or six species which have spurs and no wattles are as easily determined to 

 belong to the genus Vanellus. 



There still remain forty species or more from which the other species belonging 

 to the genus Vanellus have to be selected. I know of no so-called structural characters by 

 which this may be done satisfactorily. To say first primary shorter than the second would 

 exclude from the genus Vanellus such undoubted Lapwings as V. leucurus, V. gregarius, 

 and one or two other more or less migratory species ; and to say first primary not longer 

 than the second would admit such undoubted Plovers as Charadrius sancta-helence, and 

 one or two other species which have found breeding-grounds where the necessity to migrate 

 no longer exists. 



It is easier to draw a hard-and-fast line between the two groups of Lapwings and 

 Plovers by selecting the colour of the rump, upper tail-coverts, and especially the central 

 tail-feathers as the crucial test. 



In the typical Plovers these parts are a nearly uniform light or dark shade of grey or 

 brown. Occasionally, as in Charadrius vociferus and C. melodus, the rump and upper tail- 

 coverts differ in colour from the central tail-feathers, and occasionally, as in C. cantianus 



