572 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



to leaving our island for the winter. I would suppose that 

 they (the birds despatched with the letter) are male and 

 female or a young and an old bird. I am sorry one of them 

 is hurt in the plumage round the neck. You will see, by the 

 map of Yorkshire, that Woof ell is very high land." 



It thus appears, from the foregoing, that, at the period 

 named, the fact of the Dotterel breeding in the north-west 

 of the county was not clearly established, although one of 

 Thomas AUis's correspondents, W. Eddison (cf. Allis's Report), 

 stated it formerly bred on the Marsden and Slaithwaite moors. 

 Important additional evidence relating to its nesting in 

 Yorkshire is contained in the private correspondence of the 

 late John Hancock of Newcastle, which I have been permitted 

 to inspect, and is communicated by Mr. J. E. Anderson who, 

 writing from Holy Island in April 1875, observes that the 

 Dotterel builds on another Fell Top [in Yorkshire] a few miles 

 south from Crossfell, but he had forgotten the local name. 

 This might possibly have been Mickle Fell. We next find 

 {Nat. 1886, p. 186), that it was said to breed in Wensleydale 

 up to about 1866 at High Stake, and one Arthur Sayer, who 

 was shepherd for seventeen years on these moors, was in 

 the habit of searching for the eggs with the keepers ; though 

 the author of this statement, the late E. Chapman, was 

 careful to observe that he had never seen the eggs himself, 

 and there appears to be considerable doubt as to the reliability 

 of the record. Mr. Tinkler {op. cit. 1892, p. 324), remarks 

 that on the fells at the head of Swaledale and Arkengarthdale 

 it bred up to about i860 ; and in Ribblesdale it is reported as 

 nesting within the past twenty years. My information as to 

 its status at the present time, however, leaves room for doubt 

 as to whether the bird is to be considered as a constant nesting 

 species in the county ; the localities where it may possibly 

 nidificate are restricted to one or two of the mountains of the 

 north-west, and on one of these hill-tops Mr. R. Fortune has 

 seen a pair of adult birds in the breeding season, but has not 

 been able to locate the nest ; probably not more than two 

 or three pairs attempt to breed, though the young birds 

 were observed in the summers of 1895, 1902, and 1904. I 



