i62 DOUCKER—DOVE 



found the bird common {Be rar. Anim. atque Stirp. Hist. Londini : 

 1570, fol. 21). 



The Dotterel, Charadrius or Eudromias morineUus, is one of the 

 most beautiful of the PLOVER-kind, and its gradual extinction in 

 Great Britain is a fact much to be regretted. It has long had the 

 credit of being a delicacy for the table, and has moreover lain under 

 the disadvantage of being thought to be in better condition in 

 spring, or early summer, when it arrives in this island on its way 

 to its breeding-quarters than when it is returning southward in 

 autumn. Consequently it has been for years ruthlessly shot down 

 at the time when its life was most precious for the continuance of 

 its species, and with the result that always attends such brutal 

 practice. It used formerly to breed on the Cumberland and West- 

 moreland fells, but seems to have ceased from doing so for some 

 years, the birds resorting thither having been destroyed, and its 

 haunts on the Scottish mountains appear to be devastated by the 

 / " collector " so soon as they are discovered. So far as is at present 



{l}'^ . j^ knownf^the Dotterel stands alone among the Charadriidx, in the 

 facts that the posterior processes of the sternum extend backward 

 nearly as far as the keel does, the outer pair being somewhat everted, 

 and that the hen birds are lai'ger and more brightly coloured than 

 the cocks. Furthermore, the Dotterel lays only three eggs, four 

 being the usual number in the Limicolx. The name Dotterel is 

 often applied, with or without a prefix, to the Ringed Plover, 

 jEgialitis hiaticola, and some of its relations, to all of which it is 

 whoUy inappropriate. 



DOUCKER or DUCKER (Germ. Taucher), a word used by 

 many old writers for any bird that " ducks " or dives, and wholly 

 without special meaning. 



DOVE (Dutch, Duyve ; Danish, Due ; Icelandic, Dvfa ; German, 

 Taube), a name which seems to be most commonly applied to the 

 Bmaller members of the group of birds by ornithologists usually 

 called Pigeons, Columhx ; but no sharp distinction can be drawn 

 between Pigeons and Doves, and in general literature the two 

 words are used almost indifferently, while no one species can be 

 pointed out to which the word Dove, taken alone, seems to be 

 absolutely proper. The largest of the group to which the name is 

 applicable is perhaps the Ring-Dove, or Wood-Pigeon, also called in 

 many parts of Britain Cushat and Queest, Columba palumbus, a very 

 common bird throughout these islands and most parts of Europe. 

 It associates in winter in large flocks, the numbers of Avhich (owing 

 partly to the destruction of predacious animals, but still more to 

 the modern system of agriculture, and the growth of plantations in 

 many districts that were before treeless) have of late years increased 

 enormously, so that their depredations are at times very serious. 



