CHARADRIID^. 141 



The Rev. H. Harpur Crewe has an adult male 

 of this species, which was killed by a keeper of Earl 

 Brownlow's, on the 14th of August, 1862, in a corn- 

 field near Ivinghoe, Buckinghamshire. The female 

 bird was shot at the same time, but it dropped in 

 a dell among some rushes, and was for a time lost. 

 Some children subsequently found it, and took it 

 home to their mother, who cooked it for dinner. 



A Dotterel was shot near Reading some time 

 since ; and another was procured near Beaconsfield. 



In 1856 and 1858, several birds of this species were 

 killed by Mr. Henry Taylor, on the banks of the 

 river near Windsor. 



Mr. Frank Collins has frequently observed these 

 birds at Betterton, Wantage : he says they are exceed- 

 ingly silly birds, and that many are shot there. As 

 to its foolish qualities, Drayton, in his ^ Polyolbion,' 

 quoted by Yarrell, says : — 



* The Dotterel, which we think a very dainty dish, 

 Whose taking makes such sport, as no man more can wish ; 

 For as you creep, or cower, or lie, or stoop, or go, 

 So, marking you with care, the apish bird doth do ; 

 And acting everything, doth never mark the net, 

 'Till he be in the snare which men for him have set.' 



I am informed by my friend Mr. R. B. Sharpe 

 that a '■ trip ' of Dotterel was seen some years since 

 on Cockmarsh Common, near Cookham. 



Ringed Plover {Charadriits hiatiaild). The 

 Ringed Dotterel, or Stone-rimner, is a regular visitor 

 to the banks of the Thames and the large reservoirs 



