Observations on the Dottrel. 297 



" It should seem that this bird has been seen in several 

 parts of Great Britain throughout the year, the natural con- 

 clusion of which is, that some actually breed with us ; but no 

 person to our knowledge has been fortunate enough to take 

 their eggs, so as to be clearly identified by a competent judge : 

 it is true, a person of credit, who frequents the Mendip Hills, in 

 Somersetshire, declares that they breed there, and that he has 

 taken their eggs. Young birds are frequently shot early in 

 September, on those hills and similar situations, but that is 

 no proof of their breeding there, as the nestling plumage con- 

 tinues till towards the following spring, and is very different 

 from the adult, being entirely destitute of the bands on the 

 breast, and the ferruginous and black on the belly. Colonel 

 Thornton, in his 'Sporting Tour,' p. 104, says he killed a dot- 

 trel on a Highland mountain, August 16th, and saw several 

 brace. The same gentleman informs us that he saw dottrels 

 in pairs on the Grampian mountains, but never saw a young 

 bird, (meaning a runner, incapable of flight). From all ac- 

 counts it is quite an alpine bird in the breeding season, and 

 probably breeds with, and may be confounded with, the gol- 

 den plover in the Highland swamps." * 



The next author who alludes to this subject is Greaves : in 

 the third volume of his 'British Ornithology,' he says that 

 "we are informed by Mr. Gough, of Middleshaw, in West- 

 moreland, that this bird breeds on the neighbouring hills.f 

 We have been favoured with several eggs from different parts 

 of Scotland, said to belong to this bird; but our friends not 

 accompanying them with the bird, we are under doubts with 

 regard to their identity. " % 



Dr. Latham in his ' General History of Birds,' gives some 

 very accurate information with respect to the breeding locali- 

 ties of this species in the Highlands of Scotland. He states 

 that " the dottrel is a local bird in respect to England, being 

 in some parts sufficiently common, in others not known ; seen 

 in tolerable quantities in Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, and 

 Derbyshire, in April, May, and June ; met with on the Wilt- 

 shire and Berkshire downs in April and September, in small 

 flocks of eight or ten, being on their passage to and from the 

 north where they breed. The same on the sea side at Meales, 

 in Lancashire, the beginning of April, continuing there about 



* ' Supplement to Montagu's Orn. Diet.' 1813. 



f Dottrels, about twenty-five years ago, used to breed annually on the hills 



in the vicinity of Sedbergh and Dent, in the West Riding of York, and in 



all probability still continue to do so in small numbers, having received 



specimens from the above localities, within the last few years. 



% Greaves' ' British Ornithology,' vol. iii. 1821. 



c c 2 



