The Plovers. 
171 
The Lapwing. 
I he food of the Lapwing consists of slugs, grubs and small insects, and on the 
sea-shore it feeds on minute molluscs and insects, being everywhere a most useful 
bird and deserving of every protection. The eggs form a much appreciated article 
of food in the spring, and are diligently sought after. They are four in number, 
pear-shaped, and are laid point to point on the ground or in a slightly-constructed 
nest of grass in a tussock. The colour varies from dusky-olive or greenish-brown, 
to light clay-brown, with very distinct black blotches or spots, and underlying spots ot 
purplish-grey ; they measure about an inch-and-three-quarters in length. 
This is a species of the steppes of South-eastern Europe, and 
has occurred once in Great Britain, when a specimen was pro- 
cured in the autumn of i860, in Lancashire. It differs from the 
Common Lapwing in having no crest, and is of an ashy-brown 
colour, with the rump and upper tail-coverts pure white, the crown 
black, as also the lower breast and 
abdomen, with a patch of chestnut 
on the latter. In winter it frequents 
the uplands in flocks, preferring 
dry and sandy places. The eggs 
are four in number, and are very 
like those of the Lapwing. 
This little 
THE 
TURNSTONE. 
(Arenaria interpres.) 
THE SOCIABLE 
LAPWING. 
( Chcetusia gregaria. 
(p. 169.) 
Plover has no 
‘ dertrum ’ or 
swelling at 
the end of the bill, which is more 
wedge-shaped than is usual in the 
The Turnstone. 
