VANELLUS. 



211 



Specific 

 characters. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



The Common Lapwing may be distinguished at all ages and seasons by its combination 

 of two characters — the presence of metallic (/loss on most of the feathers of the upper parts, 

 and the absence of white on the wing-coverts. It is also the only Lapwing which has chestnut- 

 buff upper and under tail-coverts. 



The Common Lapwing has an undoubted right to its name. It is questionable 

 whether any other species of the genus is as numerous, and it is certain that none has so 

 wide a range. It is found halfway round the world, breeding from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific, and occasionally invading the American continent at each extremity of its range in 

 Greenland and in Alaska. In Scandinavia it breeds as far north as the Arctic Circle, but 

 in Siberia not further than lat. 55°. To the colder portion of its range it is only a summer 

 visitor, but in the British Islands and in Central Europe south of the Baltic it is a resident. 

 Its winter-quarters are North Africa (including the Canaries, Madeira, and the Azores), 

 the basin of the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, Persia, North India, China, and Southern 

 Japan. 



Its nearest ally is doubtless V. resplendens, a species inhabiting the Andes of Ecuador Nearest ally, 

 and Peru. 



VANELLUS GREGARIUS. 



SOCIABLE LAPWING. 



Vanellus primariarum interiorum pogoniis intei'ais albis vel albo marginatis, pogoniis externis Diagnosis. 

 nigris. 



2e2 



