SHORT COMMUNICATION Observations on Yellow-Wattled Lapwing, Vanellus malabaricus (Boddaert, 1783) in South West Bengal, India Supratim Mukherjee • Pallavi Nath • Gautam Aditya Received: 25 January 2014 / Revised: 25 June 2014 / Accepted: 7 July 2014 Ó Zoological Society, Kolkata, India 2014 Abstract The present note highlights the geographical distribution of Yellow-Wattled Lapwing Vanellus mala- baricus, which is rarest among the four Vanellus species found in south West Bengal. Perhaps, due to low encounter of V. malabaricus, the distribution of this species in south West Bengal remains obscured till now. Recent field observations in eight patches in the Gangetic plains of (Hooghly and Nadia) West Bengal, India, support their consistent availability in habitats characteristically differ- ent from the described ones. In the Indian subcontinent, including peninsular India, V. malabaricus is reported to prefer dry and arid lands, whereas the same species was located in rice fields and adjacent bushes in the Gangetic plains. As possible adaptive features, some characteristic behaviour is discussed that make them compatible with the local climatic condition of Gangetic plains of West Bengal, India. Keywords Yellow-Wattled Lapwing Á Arid zone Á Rice fields Á Gangetic plain Introduction The Yellow-Wattled Lapwing, Vanellus malabaricus Boddaert, 1783 (Charadriiformes: Charadriidae) (size - 0.27 m) is a sandy brown plover having yellow coloured wattle and legs. It is found predominantly in open fields like stubbles, fallow fields of dry areas feeding on insects while erecting its crown and less dependent on water sources (Ali and Ripley 1980). In the Indian subcontinent it ranges from lower Sind in Pakistan and stretching throughout North-India up to West Bengal including Bangladesh. It occurs throughout the South Indian Penin- sula; dry zones in Ceylon and seldom in the Nepal valley (Ali and Ripley 1980). The lapwings in general are waders, having long stout legs, short straight bill and wings with rounded edges (Kazmierczak 2000). Lapwings derive the name from their wavering flight, and ‘walk-halt-walk’ movement that turns into a ‘run-halt-tilt forward-ground pricking’ type of action during feeding. Dif- ferent lapwing species of the genus Vanellus share a variety of habitats like low wet grasslands, edges of lakes, sandy inland river banks, steppes, arable and dry grasslands (Ali and Ripley 1980; Duckworth et al. 1998; MacDonald and Bolton 2008; Maruyama et al. 2010; Sheldon et al. 2013). In India, seven species of Vanellus are found, among which four are winter migrants one of them being the critically endangered (Sociable Lapwing Vanellus grega- rius) and the rest three resident species. One of the resident lapwings the River Lapwing (Vanellus duvaucelii) is recently declared as a near threatened species by IUCN (The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013; BirdLife International 2013). Five Lapwings are encountered in West Bengal, of which, V. indicus, V. duvancelii and V. malabaricus are resident species, whereas, V. cinereu and V. vanellus are winter migrants (Grimmett et al. 2011). S. Mukherjee Structural Biology and Bioinformatics Division, Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Raja S C Mullick Road, Jadavpur 700032, India e-mail: supratimm7@gmail.com S. Mukherjee Á P. Nath Á G. Aditya Department of Zoology, The University of Burdwan, Golapbag, Burdwan 713104, India G. Aditya (&) Department of Zoology, University of Calcutta, 35 Ballygunge Circular Road, Kolkata 700019, India e-mail: gautamaditya2001@yahoo.com; gautamaditya@gmail.com 123 Proc Zool Soc DOI 10.1007/s12595-014-0117-4 T H E Z O O L O G I C A L S O C I E T Y K O L K A T A