DOTTEEEL. 7 



another. The second time, she came from a different direction, repeating the 

 manoeuvres I have endeavoured to describe ; but the third time, Feilden marked 

 her sneak on to the nest, head down, and saw her gradually settle. He gave her 

 five minutes, to make certain, and then walked straight for the little grey stone, 

 keeping his eyes firmly fixed upon it. When he Avas within six feet of the bird 

 she was still indistinguishable from the surrounding moss, and it was only when she 

 was at last forced to rise that he discovered her. It was six o'clock when the nest 

 was discovered, and seven o'clock when we left the mountain. Feilden carefully 

 packed the eggs in his hat, which he carried in his hand, and I brought away a 

 square of the moss containing the nest, having cut it carefully out with my knife." 

 The late Mr. H. W. Wheelwright gives the following account of this species 

 as observed by him in Lapland * : — "This is peculiarly a fell bird, and next to 

 the Golden Plover . . . , which swarmed on all these fells, I think was one of 

 the commonest birds on our fells, and it is found as well on the snow-covered 

 tops as on the lower fells, but always among the stones, never on the fell 

 meadows. They were by no means shy, especially in the breeding season, 

 and their soft whistling call-note, ' kirley-kirlz,' often betrayed the locality of the 

 nest, Avhich is generally nothing more than a little dry grass in a hole scraped on 

 the bare fell ; but once, and once only, I took a nest made of fine dry grass and a 

 few ptarmigan feathers. I never found more than three eggs in a nest, and, as I 

 have taken these hard sat-on, I fancy three is the full number. We took our first 

 nest on June 7, and our last on June 28 ; but by the middle of July many young 

 were strong flyers. I know no egg which is likely to be mistaken for that of the 

 Dotterel — ground colour dark stone, thickly blotched all over with black patches." 

 In his account of a " Birds' Nesting Eamble in Lapland " in the spring 

 of 1884, Mr. A. C. Chapman Avrites f: — "After a long climb we eventually 

 reached the summit of a truly characteristic Lapland ^eld ; nothing but 

 a great rolling waste of reindeer-moss, thickly strewn with grey boulders 

 and stones and occasional patches of snow. It seemed to be a real paradise 

 for the wild and solitary Dotterel. On looking over a ridge, we saw a 

 grey-looking bird get up and quickly disappear behind a knoll. On going 

 to the place, there lay the ' triple clutch ' characteristic of the Dotterel, laid 

 in a slight hole scratched in the reindeer-moss, without any lining. Leaving 

 Trinus at the nest, I went after the bird, which kept running in front of me, and 

 eventually rose, uttering a deep croak-croak, which I never heard afterwards. 

 After a considerable chase I procured her, and returned to the nest. The eggs 



* ' A Spring and Summer in Lapland,' by " An Old Bushman," pp. 346, 347. 

 t 'Ibis,' 1885, pp. 178, 179. 



