284 
COMMON LAPWING. 
season, giving employment to many individuals. 
Dogs are trained to seek the nests of this bird and 
several of the other Charadriadcc , the eggs of which 
are also used in common ; they hunt by the scent, 
and make a point as if at game, until the “ egg- 
man” comes up. (We do not know the kind of 
dog that is employed.) The geographical distri- 
bution is extensive, though confined to the Old 
World. The Lapwing is generally spread over 
Europe, extending to Scandinavia;- it extends 
northward to Iceland and the Faroe Isles ;f it is 
enumerated among the birds of Japan, J and we 
have received specimens from the neighbourhood 
of Canton, in the plumage of the winter. § 
In the full breeding plumage, the crown, chin, 
fore parts of the neck and breast, are deep and 
rich black, glossed with green ; from the occiput 
springs a long crest of narrow black feathers, 
bending or curved upward, and capable of being 
erected nearly straight when the bird is excited ; 
* Nil son. + Yarrell. £ Temrainck. 
§ A very ancient Lincolnshire family, the Tyrwhitts, bear 
three Pewits for their arms ; and, it is said, from a tradition, 
that it was in consequence of the founder of their family 
having fallen in a skirmish, wounded, and being saved by his 
followers, who were directed to the spot where he lay by the 
cries of these birds, and their hovering over him Yarrell' $ 
British Birds , communicated by Charles A ndeisoji, Esq. of Lea. 
Mr. Selby considers the birds served up at the feast of the 
Archbishop Neville, to the number of one thousand, were 
Lapwings, not specimens of the heron known as egret, under 
which name they are recorded. 
