Sow BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
the Ring Dotterel and Purres certainly appear to 
say, “ The mud for us.” 
In the summer the Ring Dotterel does not appear 
to be quite so numerous as in the winter, so there is 
probably a partial migration north wardin the 
summer, or at all events a dispersing in search of 
favourable nesting-places. 
The nest, is a mere hole scraped in the 
ground amongst small pebbles, generally near the 
sea, but not always, as the nest has been found a 
considerable way inland; a perfect nest, it is said, 
“consists of a saucer-shaped hollow scraped in the 
ground and lined with small stones, which are some- 
times so thickly piled around the sides that the eggs 
are sometimes found standing almost perpendicu- 
larly upon their small ends.’ * 
The food of the Ring Dotterel consists of worms, 
shore-worms, grubs, small beetles, insects and their 
larve, shrimps and sand-hoppers. Mr. Harting, 
writing in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1863 of the birds of 
the Kingsbury Reservoir, says of this species, “ The 
stomachs of all I have examined contained either the 
remains of small beetles and worms or a mass of 
semi-digested vegetable matter, sometimes both, and 
invariably small particles of sand or gravel.” 
The adult Ring Dotterel is a very pretty bird, and 
is easily distinguished from the other birds of the 
* See ‘ Zoologist’ for 1864, p. 9127. 
