DOTTEREL. 77 



frequenting chiefly the warrens and fens of the 

 western parts of the county. Tradition, however, tells 

 us that the " trips " which now visit this county are 

 not only smaller but their stay shorter than they were 

 formerly, when netting dotterel was a source of con- 

 siderable profit to the fowler;^ this species having 

 been always considered a great delicacy for the table. 

 Now-a-days the incessant and more noisy persecution 

 of gunners, scares even the " foolish " dotterel from our 

 inhospitable soil, which, on the other hand, presents less 

 and less attractions through inclosure and cultivation. 

 Indeed from the latter cause, on the eastern side of the 

 county, they have for many years been extremely scarce, 

 appearing at uncertain intervals and in various local- 

 ities, to be noted only as rarities, if by chance observed. 

 The Messrs. Paget, in 1834, describe them as "rather 

 rare" in the neighbourhood of Yarmouth, as they are 

 now, a few appearing occasionally, in spring, as on 

 May 19th, 1866, when a pair were shot on the beachf 

 with other migrants ; and again on their return in 

 autmnn about the end of September, at which time, Mr. 

 Frere tells me, he has known three specimens (a young 

 bird and two old ones) obtained during the last four 

 years, on the beach and denes, but has never heard of 

 one on Breydon. Further to the north, about Blakeney 

 and Morston, they are also seen at times, on their 

 migratory course. On the 12th of May, 1852, Mr. 



Stevenson, of Norwicli, F.S.A., and published in the nineteenth 

 volume of the " Archseologia," pp. 283, et seq. Also a reprint of the 

 same paper in " The progresses and processions of Queen Eliza- 

 beth," by John Nichols, F.S.A., vol. ii., p. 236. 



* For the old method of taking dotterel by night, with a net 

 and lanthorn, see " The Wild-fowler," by H. C. Folkard. 



t In May, 1867, a single bird was killed on the beach, near 

 Lowestoft, Suffolk, which Mr. G. G. Fowler informs me is the only 

 one he has known in that locaUty. 



