VANELLUS. 



207 



Three-toed. 



V. RESl'LENDENS 

 V. CAYANUS . . 



{ 



Neotropical Region. 



Peru. 



Brazil. 



Chili. 



Four -toed. 



V. CAYEXNENSIS. 

 V. CHILENSIS. 



The Lapwings are neither birds of the shore nor of the forest, but of the open plain. 

 The steppes, prairies, clowns, cultivated or uncultivated, are their home. Their absence 

 from North America suggests the idea that they were originally confined to the Old World, 

 where two large tracts of country are, and probably have been for ages, exactly suited to 

 their requirements : the great steppes of Western Asia which stretch away from Tomsk to 

 Bucharest, and the Mongolian steppes which reach from Kashgar to Pekin. The Altai 

 Mountains and the adjoining ranges separate these large tracts of country from each other, 

 so that it is not unreasonable to suppose that if the ancestors of Cursorius and Glareola 

 were isolated and differentiated from each other and from the Lapwings and Plovers 

 during the Pre-Pliocene Glacial Epoch, the genera Charadrius, Vanellus, and Lobivanellus 

 were differentiated from each other at a later date, during the succeeding interglacial epoch, 

 which may account for their apparent closer relationship. During this period we may 

 imagine that the ancestors of Charadrius were isolated on the shores of the Polar Basin, 

 those of Vanellus on the steppes of Western ' Asia, and those of Lobivanellus on the 

 Mongolian steppes. 



When these large tracts of land and the hundred little plains and marshes which 

 surround them were rendered uninhabitable by an arctic winter, ever lengthening until 

 the whole year was merged in a glacial epoch, the only resource of the bird-population 

 must have been at first migration, and finally emigration. Those parties of birds which 

 emigrated found suitable homes in various parts of the tropical and subtropical regions, 

 where their isolation naturally allowed them to be differentiated into many species ; whilst 

 those which only migrated and returned every summer to breed in the vicinity of the glaciers 

 interbred more with each other and became few species. 



The only difficulty in accounting for the geographical distribution of the Lapwings is 

 their presence in South America. This is, however, more apparent than real. Although 

 all the South-American Lapwings possess spurs on their wings and one of them has lost 

 its hind toes, two of them are obviously most nearly related to the Common Lapwing. 

 This species is a regular winter visitor, sometimes in great numbers, to the Canary Islands, 

 and is occasionally seen on the Azores. There can be little doubt that one at least of these 

 migrating parties was forced, in the struggle to find means of existence during the Post- 

 Pliocene Glacial Epoch, to emigrate from the contracted and crowded winter-quarters and 

 was fortunate enough to discover a new home in South America. 



The fact that nearly half the species of the genus Vanellus breed in the Ethiopian 

 Region suggests the theory that the distribution of the Lapwings is the result of successive 

 emigration from the Kirghiz Steppes to Africa during the Post-Pliocene Glacial Epoch. 

 These successive and successful parties must have reached the African continent at various 



Original 

 home. 



Results of 

 migration 

 and emigra- 

 tion con- 

 trasted. 



Emigration 

 to South 

 America. 



Emigration 

 to Africa. 



