VANELLTJS. 



217 



The Cayenne Lapwing has the scapulars and wing-coverts resplendent with metallic 

 violet, green, and bronze. Three other Lapwings possess this character. Of these the 

 Cayenne Lapwing is most easily distinguished from V. cristatus by its white under wing- 

 coverts, and from V. resplendens by its having a small hind toe. It is much more closely 

 allied to V. chilensis, of which it is a tropical form ; but typical examples may always be 

 distinguished when adult, and probably also when young, by the colour of the sides of the 

 neck, which is sandy-brown instead of lavender-grey. 



Vanellus cayennensis and V. chilensis are the only two Lapwings which have a spur 

 on the wing, a hind toe on the foot, but no lobe on the face. They are so closely allied 

 that it is not always certain to which species some examples belong. One of these 

 intermediate forms from Dutch Guiana, in the Leyden Museum, probably induced Schlegel 

 to regard them as one species. 



It appears to be distributed throughout tropical South America east of the Andes. 

 The Leyden Museum possesses examples from Dutch Guiana, Wallace found it at the mouth 

 of the Amazon, and I have examples from Bahia (Wucherer), Bio de Janeiro, Rio Grande, 

 and Buenos Ayres. 



The Cayenne Lapwing has many points in common with its European representative. 

 Both species have black on the breast and throat, metallic green on the back and wing- 

 coverts, metallic red on the scapulars, small hind toes, and a well-developed crest ; and 

 there can be little doubt that the former species is the result of an emigration across the 

 Atlantic of a party of Lapwings from the Old World during the Post-Pliocene Glacial 

 Epoch. The Peruvian Lapwing may be regarded either as a later emigration from the 

 modified descendants of these birds, or as an eastern emigration across the Pacific. 



The latter hypothesis is, however, very improbable. The ancestors of V. cayennensis 

 probably emigrated from the basin of the Mediterranean, and landed on the coast of 

 Brazil, towards the close of the Post-Pliocene Glacial Epoch. The ancestors of V. re- 

 splendens were doubtless isolated from those of the rest of the party long before the latter 

 was differentiated into an Eastern and a Western form, and we may assume that when they 

 were compelled to cross the Andes, the easier road round the southern spurs was barred. 

 There seems to be overwhelming evidence of some great inundation in South America, 

 which destroyed the greater part of the Mammals of that continent and caused the great 

 deposits of Pampas mud 1 . If this catastrophe was caused by the upheaval of the Andes, 

 the Bronze-winged Lapwings of South America might have been thus isolated in two 

 groups. If, on the other hand, the Ancles are older than the last Glacial Epoch, and the 

 catastrophe was caused by a temporary depression of the whole of South America (a rather 

 improbable assumption), the Lapwings would be compelled to take refuge on the mountains 

 which some of them crossed. When the Pampas were once more made accessible, the 

 ancestors of V. chilensis gradually spread round the southern spurs and up the western 

 slopes until their range has almost reached that of V. resplendens. 



1 This evidence is collected in Howorth's ' Mammoth and the Hood,' p. 325 to p. 366. 



2f 



Specific 

 characters. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



Nearest 

 allies. 



Early 

 emigrations. 



