76 PLOVER GROUP 



moult, which is common to both sexes, the male dotterel in summer 

 may be at once recognised by the rich chestnut of the breast and 

 flanks, passing posteriorly into a broad border of black, and bounded 

 anteriorly by a narrow crescentic band of white ; there is a broad white 

 stripe above each eye, meeting postcriorh- on the nape, and the abdomen 

 is also white ; the feathers of the crown of the head are dark brown with 

 buff margins ; those of the neck and back ash-brown inclining to buff 

 on the fore part of the neck, and, together with the greater wing-coverts, 

 scapulars, and inner secondaries, margined with pale chestnut ; and the 

 quills dusky. The hens arc slightly larger than the cocks, measuring 

 9 inches in length and rather more brightly coloured. In winter 

 the white crescentic band across the breast and the chestnut and black 

 patch arc lost, the whole of the under-})arts being white, tinged with 

 buff on the breast. Young birds in their first plumage are more or 

 less intermediate in colouring between the summer and winter plumages 

 of the adults, the upper-parts being darker than in the adults in winter, 

 and having the buff margins to the feathers more conspicuous, while 

 the under-parts, though white, are more deeply tinged with buff on the 

 breast, and bear traces of black on the abdomen. The chick is huffish 

 white, mottled with chestnut and black ; the head being lighter, with 

 the forehead and eyebrow white, the middle line of the head and a 

 couple of bars behind the eye black, and a band of creamy white round 

 the back. 



Dotterel on arrival at their breeding - grounds — which may be 

 either the heathy uplands of the north of England or the mossy 

 Siberian tundra — display considerable fearlessness and confidence, 

 allowing themselves to be approached within a comparatively short 

 distance ; and it is from this confiding disposition, which is, however, 

 soon exchanged for one of mistrust, that they are believed to derive 

 their name. From the fact that of the countless thousands of these 

 birds which leave northern Africa in spring for the far north scarcely 

 a single individual alights anywhere in the intervening country, there 

 arc strong grounds for believing that this prodigious journey is accom- 

 plished in a single night. Dotterel frequently assemble in their 

 southern haunts in enormous flocks during winter, when they exhibit 

 the same confiding nature as on their arrival at the breeding-grounds. 

 Worms, insects, grubs, together with buds and young shoots, constitute 

 the food of this species. The near affinity of the dotterel to the 

 Kentish plover is proclaimed by the circumstance that its eggs, which 

 are laid in a hollow among moss or heather and measure from i^ to 

 1 1 inches in length, are invariably three in number. Having a faint 



