Lapwing or Peewit 



( Vanellus vulgaris ) BECHSTEIN, 



MALE, FEMALE, NEST, EGGS, AND YOUNG. 



HE long and broadly rounded primaries of this species give these birds their 



peculiar-shaped wings. The non-naturalist would scarcely imagine that the 

 female, which is standing on the meadow-grass, had a wing-expansion equal to that 

 of the male ; yet such is the case. The only appreciable difference between the sexes 

 is that the female generally has a smaller crest and is not so bright in colour. 

 Crouching beneath some overhanging grass, in the foreground on the left, is a 

 young bird in down, a few days old. The nest is a mere hollow lined with a few 

 blades of grass and some very short rushes collected from numerous stumps of the 

 same, which had been inadvertently pulled up by cattle and scattered over the 

 meadow land. The latter, from their reddish -brown bases, rendered it much more 

 difficult to find the eggs. 



Collected on the Eaton Estate, and presented by Mr. R. J. Smith. 



