NOTES ON THE BREEDING HABITS OF THE DOTTEREL I93 



less than five single Dotterel each in charge of either one 

 or two young birds. 



Although this was certainly an exceptional year it is 

 most gratifying to reflect that Dotterel can ever be so 

 abundant in any of their Scottish breeding stations. The 

 chief features of our observations were first, that in the cold 

 of the early morning the birds were not astir, and that even 

 with so many in the locality we failed to see any until the 

 day became warmer; second, that in no case were both 

 parents present with the young, and in only one of the five 

 cases were there as many as two young,, while in no case 

 did we see three. 



Now it seems pretty obvious that the family splits up 

 almost as soon as it is hatched, one parent looking after one 

 portion and the other attending to the remainder. If the 

 bird is ever polyandrous then probably there will be one 

 young for each old bird. The first young one we saw 

 probably belonged to the same brood as the two which we 

 found 200 yards away, and I think it likely that in the 

 evening the family reassembles in full strength or at least 

 keeps in touch and finally commences its southward migration 

 as a complete family. I deduce this from having seen a 

 party of five Dotterel, obviously a family party, and con- 

 taining only one brightly coloured bird, almost at the top 

 of Ben Lawers on 29th July 1908. They were strong on the 

 wing and appeared to be fully feathered. They had, no 

 doubt, arrived from some hill farther to the north. 



A few more remarks of a general character will exhaust 

 my present notes on this subject. The well-known habit of 

 stretching the wings and the legs has frequently been alluded 

 to by previous writers, and there is a general supposition 

 that the bird does this by way of mimicry. There is 

 however, no question of mimicry as far as my observa- 

 tions go. 



The bird usually indulges in the exercises on a warm 

 day and when standing on some prominent position. 

 Another favourite habit of the Dotterel is to stand in some 

 unevenness in the ground so that its head only is showing, 

 and it thus has adequate observation with a minimum of 

 107 AND 108 Y 



