DOTTEREL. 79 



amounting to about a dozen birds, but rarely as many 

 as twenty. In the same manner, on the great fields 

 about Westacre, a few still rest for a time on tbeir 

 passage in spring — a small flock being seen by Mr. 

 Anthony Hamond, jun., during tbe first week in 

 May, 1867 ; but tlieir small numbers, and less regular 

 appearance, is remarked both by sportsmen and natu- 

 ralists in that neighbourhood. From Feltwell Mr. 

 Newcome gives a very similar account. He killed one 

 out of a small ''trip," in May, 1867, and others were 

 killed on Wangford warren, in Suffolk, during the same 

 season; but he is inclined to think that since the 

 drainage and cultivation of the "fens" these birds, on 

 their arrival in May, prefer the newly sown bean and 

 rye-lands to the warrens and sheep-walks, but this only 

 on their vernal migration, as all attraction ceases with 

 the growing crops. They are particularly partial to 

 bare grass where sheep are feeding, but even in the 

 most exposed localities will squat so close as to pass 

 unnoticed till almost trodden upon, relying for safety 

 rather on concealment than flight. The shooting of 

 dotterel during their spring passage is a most unsports- 

 manlike practice, and to its prevalence must be attributed, 

 in a great measure, the growing scarcity of the species."^ 

 For the birds killed at that season having escaped all the 

 various casualties to which they are liable during the 



* Some forty years ago ("Mag. Nat. Hist.," vol. ix., p. 625), Mr, 

 Salmon attributed the falling off in their numbers, " of late years," 

 to this cause, but at the same time it must be remembered that 

 as long since as 1833 and 1834, the late Mr. Heysham, of Carlisle, 

 who took so much pains to estabHsh the fact of their breeding 

 in the neighbourhood of the lakes, understood that they were 

 yearly becoming more and more scarce about Keswick and its 

 vicinity, owing to their destruction by anglers, their feathers being 

 in much request for dressing artificial flies (Yarrell, 2nd ed., vol ii., 

 p. 461.) 



