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A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



more, or less washed buff ; chin and throat white (sometimes with 

 some dusky-black spots) ; gorget black with metallic -green sheen, 

 some feathers faintly edged white or light buff, those bordering 

 lower -breast with broad white fringes ; under tail-coverts pink- 

 cinnamon ; rest of under -parts white ; under primary-coverts and 

 bastard-wing black ; tail-feathers with basal halves white, distal 

 halves black, tipped light buff or white, outer pair white with an 

 irregular and variable black or dusky -brown mark towards tip ; 

 primaries black, 2nd, 3rd and 4th pale smoke -brown towards tip, 

 sometimes 5th with similar patch on outer web ; secondaries black, 

 inner webs white at base, those next innermost slightly glossed violet 

 or purplish -green on outer webs, innermost and coverts as mantle ; 

 primary-coverts and bastard -wing black ; greater coverts purplish- 

 black, inner webs brown-black, inner greater coverts more or less 



The Lapwing (Vanelhis vanellus). Female adult, summer. 



metallic -green narrowly tipped buff ; median coverts metallic -green 

 mostly with a violet -purple sheen, a few with sandy-buff tips ; 

 lesser coverts deep violet-purple or metallic -green glossed deep 

 violet -purple, innermost with brownish bases often ill-concealed. 

 This plumage is acquired by complete moult Aug. to Nov. Summer. 

 — Feathers of head, some of nape, throat and breast, apparently 

 some scapulars, sometimes some innermost secondaries, some 

 median and lesser coverts but not rest of body-plumage and appar- 

 ently not tail and not wings are moulted Feb. to May. Coloration 

 as winter but crown deep black, glossed green ; eye -stripe white, 

 feathers more or less marked black ; collar on nape whiter ; lores, 

 patch in front of and below eye, band across ear-coverts, chin and 

 throat deep black (sometimes feathers in front of eye with white 

 bases and sometimes these black areas intermixed with one or two 

 worn white winter feathers) ; upper-parts and wing -coverts abraded 

 and lacking buff edges. 



Adult female. Winter. — As male but fore-head and crown 

 browner and with less green gloss ; crest shorter ; mantle, scapulars 

 and inner secondaries rather more olive -green ; patch in front of 

 and below eye browner black and less extensive ; median coverts 



