194 OUR RARER BIRDS 



either side, is one of our rarest British birds. The coasts of 

 Kent and Sussex are its only known breeding-places in this 

 country, but it has occasionally been met with elsewhere as a 

 straggler. It arrives in its English haunts at the end of 

 April, and leaves early in September. It loves to frequent 

 the quiet beaches where shingles and sands intermingle. In 

 its food, habits, flight, and nesting economy it differs little 

 from its congener, the Einged Plover. It breeds towards the 

 end of May, laying its eggs in a little hollow scraped on the 

 shore. The eggs are four in number, yellowish -brown in 

 ground colour, blotched, spotted, and streaked with dark 

 brown and pale gray. Their smaller size, dark colour, and 

 peculiar streaky markings safely distinguish them from those 

 of the Eino'ed Plover. 



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To the British naturalist the Dotterel {Charadrms mori- 

 nellus) is best known as a bird on migration, speeding to or 

 from the arctic regions. Unlike its allies, the Panged Plovers, 

 it loves the uplands and breeds upon the tundras and the 

 mountain tops. But very few of the Dotterels that pass over 

 our islands on their way north remain during the summer, 

 and these for the most part confine themselves to the summits 

 of the highest and the wildest Scottish mountains. It is a 

 very tame little creature, and seems to have no fear of man. 

 It arrives at its breeding -grounds in parties, which soon 

 disperse, and the serious business of the year commences. 

 High up the mountains, in the haunt of the Ptarmigan, 

 amongst the mosses and lichens, cranberries and rocky 

 boulders, it scrapes a little hollow, in which the female lays 

 three eggs during the first half of June. These are very 

 handsome objects, varying from grayish-buff to olive-buff in 

 ground colour, boldly blotched and spotted with dark brown 

 and gray. They are not easily confused with those of any 

 other British species, except perhaps w^ith certain varieties of 

 those of the Arctic Tern, from which they differ in having 



