8 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



climb the hill in spite of the mist and strong remon- 

 strance from the Scot, who said that if I insisted 

 upon going up he must go with me, as I should 

 otherwise lose myself and probably fall over a 

 tremendous precipice, which I subsequently dis- 

 covered to be a steep moss-covered slope of perhaps 

 ten or twelve feet. However, up we went, and after 

 a stiff half-hour's scramble arrived at the edge of 

 the mist and sat down on a stone to take breath ; 

 hardly had we done so when I heard a soft whistle 

 apparently from close behind us, I turned and peered 

 into the mist, but could see nothing. My companion 

 said, " Indeed that is only a pluffer," but it was not 

 the note of any Plover I was acquainted with, and I 

 did my best to imitate it ; I was immediately 

 answered, and after a short interchange of sibilous 

 remarks, I was aware of a bird on the wing in the 

 mist flying slowly and looking as big as a Peewit, 

 apparently at 30 yards' distance. I fired instantly, 

 but could not see the result of my shot, so went 

 higher up, and to my intense delight found my first 

 Dotterel within fifteen yards of the stone on which 

 we had been sitting, but very clean killed. The 

 mist did not lift, and we waited and listened in vain 

 for an hour, so came down the hill for home. The 

 next day was beautifully clear and bright, and we 

 made another ascent, but did not see a Dotterel, 

 though we shot a few Golden Plovers. On another 

 occasion we found large trips of Dotterel on the high 

 tops about Glenlyon, and I have occasionally seen 

 a couple or two in the deer-forest of Gaick, in 

 Inverness-shire, in August and September. 



A few Dotterel used to appear every year in May 

 upon some reclaimed moss land belonging to me in 



