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Genus VANELLUS. 



Vanellus, Brisson, Orn. v. p. 94 (1760). 



Tringa apud Linnseus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 248 (1766). 



Charadrius apud Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso-As. ii. p. 132 (1811). 



So far as I can ascertain, only four species should be referred to this genus, viz. Vanellus vulgaris, 

 which inhabits the Palaearctic Region, ranging into the northern portions of the Ethiopian Region, 

 and Vanellus cayennensis, V. occidentalis, and V. resplendens, which inhabit the Neotropical Region. 



In habits the Lapwings are shy and cautious, and are extremely difficult to approach within 

 gunshot range. They frequent wet, marshy localities, or else grass-lands, cultivated fields, and 

 uplands; and except during the nesting-season, they are generally seen in larger or smaller flocks, 

 and even during the breeding-season they are sociable, as one usually finds several pairs nesting 

 in close proximity. Their flight is powerful and light; and they have a peculiar habit of throwing 

 themselves about in the air during the pairing-season. Their note is wailing and mournful, and 

 is frequently heard quite late in the evening. They feed on worms, small land-shells, and 

 insects of various kinds, never, so far as I can ascertain, eating any vegetable matter. They nest 

 on the ground, making a mere depression in it, worked into a cup-shape, without any lining ; 

 and the eggs, four in number, are brownish olive, blotched and spotted with blackish brown 

 and pale purplish brown. 



Vanellus vulgaris, the type of the genus, has the bill considerably shorter than the head, 

 straight, moderately slender; upper mandible straight to the end of the nasal sinus, then slightly 

 raised, and decurved to the tip, which is narrow, rounded, blunt ; nostrils linear, rather long, 

 pervious, placed in the basal portion of the nasal sinus, which extends over about two thirds of 

 the length of the bill ; head furnished with a long recurved occipital crest ; wings long, full, 

 rather rounded, the first quill about equal to the sixth, the second, third, and fourth nearly 

 equal, the third being longest; the carpal joint furnished with a very small, scarcely visible, 

 hard knob ; tail moderately long, broad, even ; legs rather long, slender ; tibia bare for some 

 distance ; tarsus laterally reticulated, anteriorly scutellate ; hind toes small and feeble, anterior 

 toes moderately long and slender; claws short, curved, slender, obtuse, that on the middle toe 

 with the inner edge dilated. 



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