DOTTEREL. 249 



killed on Robinson ; and on the 26th of May, 1834, I 

 received four Dottrels from Keswick, which had been shot 

 on Great Gavel [Gable] the day before. In the ovary of 

 one of them I found an egg almost ready for exclusion, 

 being a difference of nearly eight weeks. So great a dis- 

 crepancy in all probability is of very rare occurrence ; yet it 

 will subsequently appear that eggs recently laid, and a young 

 bird, a few days old, were found on the same day, at no 

 great distance from each other. The males assist the 

 females in the incubation of their eggs. How long incu- 

 bation continues I have not yet been able to ascertain ; but 

 I am inclined to think that it rarely lasts much longer than 

 eighteen or twenty days. A week or two previous to their 

 departure, they congregate in flocks, and continue together 

 until they finally leave this country, which takes place some- 

 times during the latter part of August, at others not before 

 the beginning of September. A few birds no doubt are 

 occasionally seen after this period ; but they are either late 

 broods, or birds that are returning from more northern 

 latitudes. This autumn I visited several breeding-stations 

 on the 25th of August, and again on the 2nd of September, 

 but in neither instance could I observe a single individual. 



" Anxious as I have been for several years past to procure 

 the eggs of the Dottrel for the purpose of adding un- 

 doubted specimens of so rare an egg to my cabinet, as 

 well as to prove beyond all doubt that this bird breeds in 

 Cumberland ; yet it was not until the present year that I 

 had the gratification of accomplishing an object which I 

 have had so long in view. After repeated excursions 

 through the lake district this summer for the express 

 purpose, I was so fortunate as to obtain their eggs in 

 two difterent localities, — namely, three on Whiteside, con- 

 tiguous to Helvellyn, on the 29th of June, and two on the 

 5th of July on Robinson, in the vicinity of Buttermere. 

 The former had been incubated twelve or fourteen days ; 

 the latter were only recently laid ; and, in both instances, 

 the birds were seen to leave their eggs : one, on quitting 

 them, immediately spread out its wings and tail, which it 



VOL. III. K K 



