2-970-156 - /Heritage Images

Plovers, 1856. '...the Lapwing or Peewit (Vanellus cristatus), one of our most attractive British birds, [is] very numerous in its favourite localities. The name of Lapwing (in French Le Vanneau) is evidently derived from its easy, flapping mode of flight, on ample and rounded wings, and its gracefully-varied aerial evolutions; while the additional title of Peewit, or Peeweet (its ordinary provincial name), is a mere imitation of its reiterated note: in like manner it is called Dixhuit by the French...Our Illustration is copied, by permission, from Mr. Gould's magnificent work on the Birds of Europe'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.