Female.
Place and
Manners.
not unlike the back ; the others plain brown: the legs in all
are dull yellow: claws black.
T h& female, or Reeve, wants the ruff on the neck, and is lefs
than the male. General colour brown : the middle of each feather
duiky, in fome parts almoft black; the edges of the feathers
very pale : primaries duiky or black: fecondaries barred
rufous brown and black: belly, vent, and upper tail coverts,
white: tail duiky : legs as in the male.
The male bird does not gain the ruff till the fecond feafon,
being till then like the females as he alfo is from the end of
June till the feafon of love commences, when nature clothes him
with the ruff, and the red pimples break out on the face; but after
the time of incubation the long feathers fall off, and the caruncles
ihrink in under the lkin, fo as not to be difcerned,
Thefe birds inhabit the north of Europe in fummer, as far as
Iceland, as well as the northern marlhes of RuJJia and Sibiria.
They arrive in England in thelpring, chiefly in Lincolnjhire*, the
ifle of Ely, and the Eafi Riding of Torkjhire. The males are in
much greater number than the females ; hence the continual
battles for the fake of poffeflion. The male chufes a Hand on fome
dry bank near a fplalh of water, running round a particular fpot
fo often as to make a bare circular path : the moment a female
appears, all the males within a given diftance begin fighting, at
which time the fowlers catch them, by means of nets, in great
numbers -f\ They are alfo caught by means of Stale Birds, but
• Chiefly in the Weft Fen. Tour in Scotl.
f By placing a clap-net, fourteen yards long and four broad, over night, forty-
four birds have been caught at one pull, the morning following j and in all fix
dozen in the courfe of the morning.-—A fowler has caught Between forty and
fifty dozen in one feafon.— Br. ZooU
in
in much lefs quantity. It is ufual to fat thefe birds for the
table by means of bread and milk, mixed with hemp-feed, and
fometimes boiled wheat, to thefe by many fugar is added;
which laft in a fortnight’s time will caufe them to be one lump
of fat, when they will fetch from two {hillings to half a crown
each. The Reeve lays four eggs in a tuft of grafs, the beginning of
May, they are white, marked with large rufty fpots: and the
young are hatched in about a month. It is not known for certain
where this fpecies pafs the winter, and perhaps it may be
fome time before we do; for, as the bird has the charafteriftic
marks'of the Ruff only in breeding-time, it may pofiibly pafs
unheeded among the feveral others of this genus. In the Leve-
rian Mufeum is a variety of the female, being wholly white, except
the wings, which have much the fame marking as ufual,
except of a very pale colour.
Tringa vanellus, Lin. Syfi. 1 p. 248- 2.— Faun. H R 176.— Scop. Ann. 1. *
N° n u — Brun. N* 170.— Muller, N° 192. Kram. E l. p. 353— * LAPWING.
Frifch. ii. 213.— Olin. Uc. pi. in p. 21— Gurgi ReiJ}, p. 172.
Le Vanneau, B n f . Orn. v. p. 94. 1. pi- 8. fig. 1 ,— B u f. Oif. vm. p. 48.
pi. 4.— PI. Enl. 242. ' . .
Lapwing, or Ballard Plover, Rail Syn. p. n o . A. 1. Will. Orn. 307.
pi. t f .— A lb in .i. pi. 74.— Br. Zml. N° 190.— ArB. Zocl. p. 480. D.
L e v . Muft
T E N G T H thirteen inches and a half: weight eight ounces.
^ gin one inch or. more, and black: irides hazel: the crown
of the head is gloffy greeniih black; at the back part fprings a
creft compofed of narrow feathers, fome of which are four inches
in length, and turn upwards at the ends : round the eye and the
V ó l . III. Y Mes
Description*