Part 33

Ridgway (1919) says that the sexes are alike, and that he has been unable to verify the supposed differences in the wing formula of male and female. It is, however, easy to distinguish the sexes in life by the shape of the wing of the male, which is, as described by Frohawk and others, much more rounded in shape than that of the female.

Food.--This consists largely of earthworms, mollusca (including the large slugs Arion and Agriolimax as well as the smaller snails, Helix sp.; also during the winter months marine shell fish, Tellina, Bythinia, Physa, etc.) and insects. This latter family includes Coleoptera (Otiorhynchus, Carabidae, Ocypusolens, Aphodius, Agriotes, various species of Geodephaga, etc.), Diptera, including larvae of Tipulidae, Lepidoptera (many larvae of moths such as Noctua segetum, N. exclamationes, etc.), and Orthoptera. Vegetable matter is also eaten, but not largely. Seeds of Ranunculus repens, Polygonum aviculare, and Spergula have been recognized, also fragments of seaweed (Algae) in winter. Spiders and marine crustacea are also recorded.

Behavior.--The lapwing is preeminently a gregarious bird. All through the winter months it is to be met with in flocks, sometimes of great size, and even in the breeding season it is rare to find a single pair nesting out of sight and earshot of its neighbors. The curious “wobbling” flight enables the species to be recognized at great distances. Unlike some other gregarious species, such as the starling, the lapwing is not expert in the art of simultaneous maneuvers and it is a common sight to see a big flock rise together on the wing and break up at once into two bodies moving in different directions. Then gradually birds from the smaller body will gravitate toward the larger flock and after a time the two will reunite, but there is a lack of leadership and confidence in their movements which at once distinguishes them from the smartly wheeling flocks of dunlins, knots, or other gregarious waders. Sometimes a party of golden plover will associate on the wing with a flock of lapwing, but here, again, the difference is very striking.

Enemies.--Probably the rook destroys more eggs and small young than any other foe except man, but the jackdaw, hooded crow, and carrion crow are all apt to devour the eggs. I have seen a sparrow hawk drop from a tree onto a bird rising from its nest and bind onto it for a time, but the lapwing broke free after a struggle. It is not uncommon to find remains of birds on the feeding tables of the sparrow hawk near a breeding ground. The peregrine also sometimes takes lapwing, but its erratic tumbling flight renders it a difficult prey.

Fall.--Ringing has proved that some of the British-reared birds find their way to Iceland, France, and Portugal. In mild winters there are always a considerable number of flocks in our southern counties, but hard frosts or deep snow will cause them to move to the south coast or to emigrate.

Although a most useful bird from the agriculturist’s point of view, the lapwing is shot freely during the autumn and winter, chiefly by shore shooters, while the demand for its eggs as delicacies has also been detrimental to its status. In Holland the earliest clutches are all taken for the market and this has had no injurious effect, as the birds lay again and are then protected strictly.

DISTRIBUTION

Breeding range.--Europe north to the Arctic Circle, the British Isles, but only exceptionally in the Faroes, and not in Iceland. In Finland to latitude 68° on the Muonio River and in Russia north to Archangel. Southward it breeds in Andalusia and in the Balkan Peninsula to Macedonia, but not in Greece or the Mediterranean Islands. Breeding in Morocco requires confirmation. It also breeds across Asia east to the Pacific, south to Transcaspia and Yarkand.

Winter range.--Many birds winter in the British Isles, but on the Continent they move to southern Europe and northern Africa, visiting the Atlantic isles occasionally (Canaries, Madeira, etc.). In Asia, Asia Minor, Palestine, Iraq, Persia, and north India, China, North Burma, and Japan.

Spring migration.--The northward movement of continental birds depends much on the weather. In mild winters they have appeared in Denmark in January and February, but the average date is about March 6. In Sweden the arrival is also irregular, from mid February to mid March, but in south Finland not till late in March. In central Europe the birds arrive as a rule on the breeding grounds early in March, and the Mediterranean passage is generally over by the beginning of that month.

Fall migration.--Migrants from the north arrive at Gibraltar about mid October, while in Malta the passage takes place in November, and in Greece at the end of October. In Iraq they arrive from October 22 onward, but chiefly in early November.

Casual records.--Greenland, occasional visitor (Julianehaab 1847; Fiskenaes 7, I, 1820, etc.) Iceland; numerous records between September and March; Labrador (Cartwright, January, 1917); Newfoundland, White Hills, November 23, 1905 and recently (December, 1927); Nova Scotia (Ketch Harbor, March 17, 1897); Long Island, New York (Merrick, 2 specimens, December 26, 1883 and Meccox Bay, Waterville, autumn 1905); Bahamas (Hog Island, November, 1900); Barbados (December 24, 1886); West Alaska (small islets in Norton Sound); Madeira (Machico, December 6, 1891, December 2, 1889, December 4, 1893, January 14, 1895, March 10, 1895, December 15, 1896, and November 28, 1897); Jan Mayen (30 on April 8, 1883).

C. L. Whittle (1928) has suggested the following theory, as to the possible cause of this unusual flight:

As to the cause of the movement of lapwings to Newfoundland and the route taken, it is perhaps helpful to study the Pilot Charts of the North Atlantic above referred to. During the month of December, the 16th and 17th, a well-developed cyclone of exceptional intensity had its center well to the east of Spain, with a low pressure of 28.30 inches, and with accompanying strong southeasterly winds from western Europe. These winds might easily have been instrumental in driving lapwings to Iceland, five to seven hundred miles distant, and to Greenland. Later, polar winds and a search for food may have played important parts in forcing a movement southwesterly to northern Labrador, and then southeasterly, following the coast to Newfoundland. Here, near the shore, snowless tundras, which probably would furnish a food supply, may have existed, even in December, with the result that the recently scattered birds became gradually concentrated.

See also A Transatlantic Passage of Lapwings, by H. F. Witherby, in British Birds, vol. 22, pp. 6–13.

Egg dates.--March 2 to 19 (9 dates); March 26 to 31 (18 dates); April 1 to 14 (60 dates); April 15 to 30 (29 dates, probably including many second layings); late date June 22. All the above from England.

EUDROMIAS MORINELLUS (Linnaeus)

DOTTEREL

Contributed by Francis Charles Robert Jourdain

HABITS

The claim of this species to a place in the American list rests on a single occurrence at King Island, Alaska, on July 23, 1897.

Spring.--The regularity of the appearance of the dotterel on migration at almost the same spots year after year and approximately about the same time in spring, has proved a great disadvantage to the species, as being very tame and unsuspicious and much sought after, not only as a delicacy for the table, but also on account of the demand for its feathers on the part of fly-fishers, it was mercilessly shot on the way to its breeding grounds in the north of England and Scotland. The usual date of arrival was about the last week of April and the beginning of May and little “trips” might be looked for annually at certain favored spots along the route northward. Exceptionally early arrivals have been recorded on March 25, April 4 and April 8, but these are quite unusual.

Courtship.--Owing no doubt partly to the inaccessible nature of its haunts and also partly to its scarcity, there is nothing on record in the literature as to the courtship of this bird. All writers are agreed that the migrants which pass through England are in small flocks or “trips” and are still unpaired. In 1922 I was on the high field of West Finmark and there was still a great deal of snow about, but here and there islands of gray rock stood out from the snow field. Here we met with dotterel in fair numbers, evidently pairing and house hunting. They shared the ground with a few snow buntings and ptarmigan, and it was obvious that already certain spots had been selected for breeding. Sometimes three birds would be seen wheeling round a bare patch of moor and rock and freely uttering their courting notes, which reminded us of those of the ring plover. We saw nothing to suggest the existence of a nuptial song flight, but further observations at this period would be of great interest.

Nesting.--In Scotland and the English lake district the breeding haunts of this species must be looked for at about 2,500 to 3,500 feet or even higher, not on the mountain tops, but on plateaus or slopes below the highest points. Here, where the only vegetation consists of a scanty growth of heather mixed with wiry grass, mosses and lichens, and occasional fragments of gray rock crop out here and there, the dotterel is at home. Few living things haunt their solitudes; a stray raven or eagle may pass over occasionally, but as a rule there is hardly a sign of life anywhere. There is some evidence that one or two “scrapes” are made by one pair of birds, but we have no information as to which of the two is responsible for making the hollow. The eggs are laid in a natural depression adapted by the bird, roughly about three and one-half inches across and fairly deep, as a rule, but generally filled with fragments of lichen or the red leaves of the cranberry, so that the eggs are not difficult to see though their coloring harmonizes with the surroundings.

Eggs.--Normally three, but frequently two only, while instances of four are comparatively rare. They are more elliptical and less pyriform than most waders’ eggs and are not unlike some types of eggs of the Arctic tern, though almost always more boldly blotched. In color they range from yellowish olive to clay color, occasionally with a greenish tinge and are boldly spotted and blotched with deep blackish brown and a few ashy shell marks. The average of 100 British eggs, measured by the writer is 41.1 by 28.8 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =46.7= by 31.3, 44.5 by =31.5=, =37.5= by 29 and 41.6 by =27.4= millimeters.

The sexes are not easy to distinguish in the field, but nearly all the positive evidence from birds shot off the eggs goes to prove that the male is generally to be found incubating. H. H. Slater shot two males from eggs. H. J. Pearson and Gloger had similar experiences, and Bengt Berg, who has watched this bird at close quarters, says that only the male incubates. Many accounts have been published of the behavior of the sitting bird. When flushed from the eggs it returns by a circuitous route, cowering like a mouse, as one observer describes it, sometimes stopping to look round and sometimes doubling back on his tracks like a hunted hare, but all the time, in spite of the numerous turns and twists, gradually approaching the eggs to which at last a short direct run is made. Viewed from behind the bird is exceedingly difficult to follow with the eye in its environment, so that close watching is necessary to mark it down. When the nest has once been discovered, or if the bird is brooding young, it will show extraordinary boldness and will even allow itself to be lifted off the nest by the hand, settling down again as soon as it is removed. Bengt Berg actually succeeded in photographing a bird in the act of accepting a worm from the hand. The only information as to the length of the incubation period is Heyshams oft-quoted assertion that it rarely lasts more than 18 or 20 days. Only a single brood is reared in a season, but the hen will lay a second time about a fortnight after the first clutch has been destroyed.

Young.--In one case when Seton Gordon came across a nest with half-grown chicks, both parents showed signs of great excitement and almost complete disregard of his presence, running backward and forward and frequently uttering their soft whistle which sounded something like twee, twee, tuur, the first two notes pitched in a high key and the last a purring sound difficult to express in writing. On other occasions only a single old bird accompanied the young and considerable differences were apparent in their behavior, some showing signs of great anxiety when the young were approached while others were apparently almost indifferent and remained some distance off.

Plumages.--The plumages and molts are fully described in A Practical Handbook of British Birds edited by H. F. Witherby (1920).