144 THE BIEDS OP OXFOEDSHIRE. 



THE DOTTEREL. L ^ 



Eudromias morinellus. 



The Dotterel^ at the time the Messrs. Matthews wrote their 

 account (1849)^ visited us sparingly in spring- and autumn, 

 when on its passage to and from its breeding-grounds, and 

 they gave the dates of its appearance as the fourth week in 

 April to the second in May, and the first to the third week in 

 October. Wherever the Dotterel appears on passage in 

 England a great diminution in its numbers has been noticed 

 of late years, and the only locality in Oxfordshire, as far as I 

 am aware, now visited annually by them, is Puddock Hill, 

 near Crowmarsh, information respecting which has been kindly 

 communicated by Mr. W. Newton, jun. They arrive in 

 spring about the latter end of April or the first week in May, 

 retiu'ning from their breeding haunts as early as the end 

 of August, or the beginning of September, in some years, but 

 in others not before the end of the latter month. During" 

 their stay, which rarely exceeds six or seven days, and is 

 often shorter, they usually frequent fallows, invariably resort- 

 ing to such, or to other bare ground, on being disturbed. On 

 the spring migration the ' trips ' seldom exceed fifteen or five- 

 and-twenty in number, but in autumn Mr. Newton has seen 

 as many as fifty or sixty on the wing. A few examples are 

 shot at Crowmarsh in most autmnns, and Mr. Newton has a 

 local example in his collection. During the present spring 

 (1888) none were observed, owing to the fact that the ground 

 in question, and for more than a mile round, was under crops, 

 and unsuited to the birds^ requirements. Mr. C. E. E,uck- 

 Keene has a Dotterel in his collection which was shot at 

 Swyncombe in 1859 (^in lit.). The Dotterel should be looked 

 for on open downs and fallows on the Chiltern Hills, and on 

 high-lying open arable land, about Burford, etc. 



