DOE-BIRD— DOTTEREL i6l 



of these specimens, having been sent by M. Sauzier to Sir Edward 

 Newton, are now in process of being worked out, and it is clear 

 that they Avill add not a little to a better knowledge of the osteo- 

 logy of the species. 



The causes which led to the extii-pation of this ponderous 

 Pigeon are elsewhere discussed (Extermination), and it will be 

 remembered that the Dodo does not stand alone in its fate, but 

 that two more or less nearly allied birds inhabiting the sister 

 islands of Reunion and Rodriguez (Solitaire) have in like manner 

 disappeared from the face of the earth. 



DOE-BIRD or DOUGH-BIRD, the name given, according to 

 Nuttall {llan. Orn. U.S. and Canada, ii. p. 102), indiscriminately 

 by the English in eastern North America to some species of CuRLEW 

 and GODWIT; but, says Mr. Trumbull (Names and Partr. B. p. 203), 

 rightly applied to the small species of the former, Numenius hwealis, 

 commonly called the Esquimaux Curlew. 



DOLLAR-BIRD, the Australian name for Eunjstomus pacificus, 

 from the silvery Avhite spot in the middle of the wing, which is dis- 

 tinctly shewn in flight (Gould, Handh. B. Austral, i. p. 120). The 

 genus Eurystomus, which is one of the Coraciidx (Roller), contains 

 about half a dozen species, belonging to the Indian or Ethiopian 

 Regions. 



DORR-HAAVK, a name of the Nightjar, from its feeding on 

 the mischievous "Dorr-Beetle" (Meloloidha solstitialis). 



DOTTEREL (variously spelt), the diminutive of Dolt, a bird 

 so called from its alleged stupidity ; for, as asserted by many old 

 writers, if the fowler stretched out his arm or his leg, so did the 

 Dotterel with its homologous limb. So prone is mankind to believe 

 any silly story of what it is the custom to call "Animal Instinct," 

 that this foolish notion prevails to the present day among many 

 who pass for zoologists. Yet the true meaning was told to 

 Willughby in or before 1676 : one Peter Dent, a Cambridge 

 apothecary, having Avritten to him the information supplied by a 

 gentleman of Norfolk well acquainted with the " sport " of catching 

 these birds, to the eff"ect that instead of their aping the gestures 

 .of the men, it was the men who aped those of the birds, as the 

 latter were being driven into the nets ; for, as every one who has 

 watched the actions of Limicolse must know, it is their common 

 habit as they run to extend a wing and often simultaneously a leg. 

 This belief in the foolishness of the species has been fostered also 

 by its name morinellus, bestowed by Caius with a double meaning 

 — being a diminutive of morus, a fool, and having reference to 

 Morini, the ancient name of the people of Flanders, where he had 



II 



