LAPWING. 
289 
Genus— Vanellus. 
221. Vanellus vulgaris. Lapwing. 
Peewit. Green Plover. 
" In the Spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest. 
Tennyson's " Locksley HallP 
A common resident in all parts, breeding in great 
numbers on the mainland, and less commonly in the Isle 
of Wight. 
Gilbert White notes i that " soon after the lapwings 
have done breeding they congregate, and, leaving the 
moors and marshes, betake themselves to downs and 
sheep-walks." 
This remark is still true. They assemble in vast flocks 
every autumn, sometimes, as in 1904, as early as August ; 
and during winter their numbers are still further increased 
by immigrants from the North. 
In March, again, they separate and return to their 
nesting haunts, some few pairs resorting thither in the 
earliest days of the month. 
Around the ponds on the downs and uplands of the 
Central Hill district, may often be discovered several young 
broods of peewits, led there by their parents soon after 
hatching. 
Near Ipley, in the New Forest, Munn obtained in 1897, 
a clutch of five eggs of this bird, each egg having a zone, 
without any spots, round the middle ; and the next year 
he procured precisely similar specimens from the same 
locality. Malformed and undersized eggs are not unusual. 
^ Letter xxxix. to Pennant. Selborne. November 9th, 1773. 
