CHARADRI1D.4':. 



THE DOTTEREL. 



EuDRoMiAS MORiNELLUS (Linnsus). 



The Dotterel usually makes its appearance in the southern and 

 eastern counties of England towards the end of April or early in 

 May, according to the season ; leaving for the south in August or 

 the beginning of September. It is somewhat partial to the chalk- 

 formation and was formerly abundant along the low hills on the 

 borders of Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire, on its way to the 

 mountains of the Lake district where it has long been known to 

 breed, although at the present day its numbers are sadly diminished. 

 This decrease is not attributable to the greed of the ornithologist or 

 the egg-collector, but to the esteem in which its feathers have been 

 held by anglers for dressing artificial flies; and still more to the 

 slaughter of the bird for the table on its spring passage — a proceed- 

 ing which has barely been checked by an inefficient and feebly- 

 administered law. On migration the Dotterel often lingers on the 

 marshes — by which I do not mean wet swamps — near the sea-coast 

 on both sides of our island, and is of tolerably wide distribution, 

 except in Wales, where it is of very rare occurrence. None remain 

 during summer on the Cheviots, along which the ' trips ' pass on 

 their way northward in spring ; but Mr. Service informs me that 

 a few pairs nest on the (ialloway and Dumfriesshire hills, while 

 further north the bird breeds on the Grampians, esi)ecially on the 



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