6 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



Peebleshire, in August. Their general habits at that 

 time of year appeared to me to resemble closely those 

 of the Golden Plover; but they are usually much 

 more tame and easy of approach than that species, 

 which, with some exceptions, becomes wary as soon 

 as the young are strong on the wing, whilst Dotterels, 

 even when united in large flocks, will often allow 

 themselves to be approached within half a gunshot. 



My first personal acquaintance with this bird was 

 formed in my school-days, whilst on a holiday visit 

 to an uncle in Peebleshire. I had very recently been 

 allowed to carry a gun for the first time, and my 

 keen love of shooting was much stimulated by the 

 information given to me by my relation and his 

 factotum that a few pairs of Dotterels annually bred 

 about the top of a very bare and steep isolated hill 

 at no great distance from the house, and that some 

 had been seen a day or two before my arrival, about 

 the third week of August. My uncle owned some 

 very fair Grouse-moors, but had let the shooting over 

 them to a neighbour, only retaining the hill above 

 mentioned and a small range of heathery braes, for 

 the most part planted with young fir trees, in his 

 own occupation. Accompanied by the factotum 

 above mentioned, who united the offices of game- 

 keeper, gardener, and farm bailiff in his own person, 

 and was a most trustworthy and intelligent man, a 

 good shot, and an observer of bii'ds, I sallied on the 

 morning after my arrival with full permission to shoot 

 anything that I could find worthy of pow^der and 

 shot, but with my mind entirely absorbed with the 

 prospect of seeing and perhaps shooting a Dotterel. 

 We wound our way along the bank of a purling 

 burn, up a steep and narrow glen, with tall heather, 



