254 CHARADRIID.!:. 



In Mongolia it was not found by the Abbe David, and 

 Messrs. Blakiston and Piyer do not include it in their latest 

 list of the Birds of Japan, but Cassiu identified specimens 

 obtained at Hakodadi on the cruise of the U.S. ship 

 ' Portsmouth ' (Pr. Ac. Nat. Sc. Philad. 1858, p. 195), and 

 the Editor has seen examples obtained by Nordenskiold at 

 Koljutschin, close to Behring's Straits. 



The earliest mention of the Dotterel appears to be in 

 the Northumberland ' Household Book ' {circa 1512), in 

 which the entry occurs : " Item Dottrells to be bought for 

 my Lorde when thay ar in season and to be had at jd. a 

 pece." Gesner, in his ' Historiae Animalium,' lib. III. p. 615 

 (1585), cites a description sent to him by Dr. Key, and Wil- 

 lughby renders the passage as follows : — " It [the Dotterel] 

 is taken in the night time by the light of a candle by imitat- 

 ing the gesture of the Fowler : For if he stretches out an 

 Arm, that also stretches out a Wing ; if he a Foot, tbat like- 

 wise a Foot : In brief, whatever the Fowler doth, the same 

 doth the Bird ; and so being intent upon mens gestures it is 

 deceived, and covered with the Net spread for it. I call it 

 Morincllus for two reasons, first because it is frequent among 

 the Mormi (Flemmings) ; and next because it is a foolish Bird 

 even to a Proverb, we calling a foolish dull person a Dotterel."* 

 Willughby goes on to quote an account given to " his very 

 good friend Mr. Peter Dent, of Cambridge," by a gentleman 

 of Norfolk, who told him that " to catch Dotterels six or 

 seven persons usually go in company. When they have 

 found the Birds, they set their Net in an advantageous 

 place ; and each of them holding a stone in either hand, 

 get behind the Birds, and striking their stones often one 

 against another, rouse them, which are naturally very slug- 

 gish ; and so by degrees coup them and drive them into the 

 Net. The Birds being awakened do often stretch them- 

 selves, putting out a Wing or a Leg, and in imitation of 

 these, the men that drive tliem thrust out an Arm or a Leg 

 for fashion sake, to comply with an old custom. But he 



* Ornithology, p. 309. In the original of Gesner, Dr. Key also gives the 

 derivation of morincllus from f^upog, dull. 



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