522 DOTTEREL. 



borders of Perthshire and Inverness-shire, as well as in Ross ; per- 

 haps in Sutherland. It visits the Orkneys and Shetlands, but has 

 not yet been recorded from the Outer Hebrides, and is of rare 

 occurrence on the west side of Scotland. In Ireland it is 

 decidedly uncommon at any season. 



As a wanderer this species has been observed in Novaya Zemlya, 

 and it breeds in considerable numbers on the fells of Norway and 

 Sweden ; also throughout the tundras of European and Asiatic 

 Russia as far as Bering Sea, and in the mountain regions of the 

 Ala-tau and other ranges in Eastern Siberia. It is not known to 

 visit Mongolia, but it passes through Western Turkestan and occurs 

 in Persia, while Palestine, Egypt and Northern Africa appear to 

 constitute its principal winter-quarters, where it is very abundant. 

 Throughout the Mediterranean basin it is only a migrant, as it is 

 over the central part of the Continent, with the exception of the 

 highlands of Transylvania, Styria and Bohemia, on which its eggs 

 and young have been taken. 



Mr. Prank Nicholson, who has been in the habit of exploring the 

 Pake district for more than thirty years, says that the Dotterel 

 usually lays its eggs, never exceeding 3 in number, in a depres- 

 sion of the short dense grass, a little below the summits of the 

 mountains ; their colour is yellowish-olive, blotched and spotted 

 with brownish-black, and the average measurements are i"6 by I'l in. 

 Incubation seldom begins before the first or second week in June. 

 The food consists of wireworms, beetles and other insects. The 

 trivial as well as the scientific name of this bird refers to its supposed 

 stupidity and the ease with which it allows itself to be approached 

 by a fowler with a net, while watching and even imitating his 

 movements. 



The adult has the crown nearly black, bordered by a broad white 

 loop which runs backwards from each eye and round the nape ; 

 feathers of the upper parts ash-brown, with paler edges and rufous 

 margins to the inner secondaries ; tail-feathers — except the central 

 pair — broadly tipped with white ; chin and throat dull white ; breast- 

 feathers ash-brown, tipped with black at their junction with a white 

 gorget, followed by warm chestnut on the lower breast and flanks ; 

 belly black ; tail-coverts white ; axillaries greyish. Females are 

 somewhat larger and brighter than males. Pength 9 in. ; wing 6 in. 

 The young bird has the feathers of the crown and upper parts 

 margined with rufous-buff, especially the long inner secondaries ; 

 breast mottled with greyish-brown, and with little indication of the 

 white gorget ; remaining under parts dull white. 



