212 BIRDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



years ago that Mr. J. B. Hodgkinson tells me hundreds 

 were offered for sale in Preston market in May. On the 

 hills at the head of Wyresdale it is also seen at this 

 season, and on Beaton Fell, on the 1st of August, 1879, 

 a female, in good condition, and with the hatching spot 



bare, was shot by Mr. Bates of Liverpool. The late 



Rev. J. D. Banister, too, writes (Mss.) that he has never 

 found a nest, but that on the highest of these hills he 

 has known a female bird to be killed with eggs in her at 

 maturity. It is now never seen on Pendle Hill, where 

 on August 28th 1834, a Dotterel was killed which passed 

 into the possession of the late Dr. Garstang ; or on Black- 

 stone Edge, where, twenty-six years ago, Mr. John Drake 

 says it occurred regularly. Mr. T. Jackson writes me 

 that four birds out of a flock of eighteen were shot at 

 Pilling in 1880 on March 12th, but this is a much earlier 

 date than usual, and from about the 26th of April to the 

 12th of May is the average time of its sojourn. 



GENUS VANELLUS. 



SOCIABLE PLOVEPt. 



Vanellus gregarius (Pallas). 



[The following appeared in Tlie Zoologist for 1888, 

 p. 389 :— " In the ' Birds of Lancashire ' (p. 175), I 

 stated that I had examined a Cream-coloured Courser 

 which had been shot in this county, and it is with 

 mingled grief and joy that I have to advise you, firstl}^ 

 of an error in identification, and, secondly, of an addi- 

 tion to the British list. The bird in question, having 

 come into the possession of Mr. W. H. Doeg, of Man- 



