DOTTEREL. Tb 
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 beacht 
with other migrants; and again on their return in 
autumn 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 Norwich, F.S.A., and published in the nineteenth 
volume of the “ Archzologia,” 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. 
+ 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 locality. 
