LAPSE (Lat. _lapsus_, a slip or departure), in law, a term used in
several senses. (1) In ecclesiastical law, when a patron has neglected
to present to a void benefice within six months next after the
avoidance, the right of presentation is said to lapse. In such case the
patronage or right of presentation devolves from the neglectful patron
to the bishop as ordinary, to the metropolitan as superior and to the
sovereign as patron paramount. (2) The failure of a testamentary
disposition in favour of any person, by reason of the decease of its
object in the testator's lifetime, is termed a lapse. See LEGACY, WILL.
LAPWING (O.Eng. _hleápewince_ = "one who turns about in running or
flight"),[1] a bird, the _Tringa vanellus_ of Linnaeus and the _Vanellus
vulgaris_ or _V. cristatus_ of modern ornithologists. In the temperate
parts of the Old World this species is perhaps the most abundant of the
plovers, _Charadriidae_, breeding in almost every suitable place from
Ireland to Japan--the majority migrating towards winter to southern
countries, as the Punjab, Egypt and Barbary--though in the British
Islands some are always found at that season. As a straggler it has
occurred within the Arctic Circle (as on the Varanger Fjord in Norway),
as well as in Iceland and even Greenland; while it not unfrequently
appears in Madeira and the Azores. Conspicuous as the strongly
contrasted colours of its plumage and its very peculiar flight make it,
it is remarkable that it maintains its ground when so many of its allies
have been almost exterminated, for the lapwing is the object perhaps of
greater persecution than any other European bird that is not a
plunderer. Its eggs are the well-known "plovers' eggs" of commerce,[2]
and the bird, wary and wild at other times of the year, in the
breeding-season becomes easily approachable, and is shot to be sold in
the markets for "golden plover." Its growing scarcity in Great Britain
was very perceptible until the various acts for the protection of wild
birds were passed. It is now abundant and is of service both for the
market and to agriculture. What seems to be the secret of the lapwing
holding its position is the adaptability of its nature to various kinds
of localities. It will find sustenance equally on the driest of soils as
on the fattest pastures; upland and fen, arable and moorland, are alike
to it, provided only the ground be open enough. The wailing cry[3] and
the frantic gestures of the cock bird in the breeding-season will tell
any passer-by that a nest or brood is near; but, unless he knows how to
look for it, nothing save mere chance will enable him to find it. The
nest is a slight hollow in the ground, wonderfully inconspicuous even
when deepened, as is usually the case, by incubation, and the
black-spotted olive eggs (four in number) are almost invisible to the
careless or untrained eye. The young when first hatched are clothed with
mottled down, so as closely to resemble a stone, and to be overlooked as
they squat motionless on the approach of danger. At a distance the
plumage of the adult appears to be white and black in about equal
proportions, the latter predominating above; but on closer examination
nearly all the seeming black is found to be a bottle-green gleaming with
purple and copper; the tail-coverts, both above and below, are of a
bright bay colour, seldom visible in flight. The crest consists of six
or eight narrow and elongated feathers, turned slightly upwards at the
end, and is usually carried in a horizontal position, extending in the
cock beyond the middle of the back; but it is capable of being erected
so as to become nearly vertical. Frequenting parts of the open country
so very divergent in character, and as remarkable for the peculiarity of
its flight as for that of its cry, the lapwing is far more often
observed in nearly all parts of the British Islands than any other of
the group Limicolae. The peculiarity of its flight seems due to the wide
and rounded wings it possesses, the steady and ordinarily somewhat slow
flapping of which impels the body at each stroke with a manifest though
easy jerk. Yet on occasion, as when performing its migrations, or even
its almost daily transits from one feeding-ground to another, and still
more when being pursued by a falcon, the speed with which it moves
through the air is very considerable. On the ground this bird runs
nimbly, and is nearly always engaged in searching for its food, which is
wholly animal.
Allied to the lapwing are several forms that have been placed by
ornithologists in the genera _Hoplopterus_, _Chettusia_, _Lobivanellus_,
_Defilippia_. In some of them the hind toe, which has already ceased to
have any function in the lapwing, is wholly wanting. In others the wings
are armed with a tubercle or even a sharp spur on the carpus. Few have
any occipital crest, but several have the face ornamented by the
outgrowth of a fleshy lobe or lobes. With the exception of North
America, they are found in most parts of the world, but perhaps the
greater number in Africa. Europe has three species--_Hoplopterus
spinosus_, the spur-winged plover, and _Chettusia gregaria_ and _C.
leucura_; but the first and last are only stragglers from Africa and
Asia. (A. N.)