DOE-BIRD—DOTTEREL 161 
of these specimens, having been sent by M. Sauzier to Sir Edward 
Newton, are now in process of being worked out, and it is clear 
that they will add not a little to a better knowledge of the osteo- 
logy of the species. 
The causes which led to the extirpation of this ponderous 
Pigeon are elsewhere discussed (EXTERMINATION), and it will be 
remembered that the Dodo does not stand alone in its fate, but 
that two more or less nearly allied birds inhabiting the sister 
islands of Réunion and Rodriguez (SOLITAIRE) have in like manner 
disappeared from the face of the earth. 
DOE-BIRD or DOUGH-BIRD, the name given, according to 
Nuttall (Jan. Orn. U.S. and Canada, ii. p. 102), indiscriminately 
by the English in eastern North America to some species of CURLEW 
and Gopwit ; but, says Mr. Trumbull (Names and Portr. B. p. 203), 
rightly applied to the small species of the former, Numenius borealis, 
commonly called the Esquimaux Curlew. 
DOLLAR-BIRD, the Australian name for Hurystomus pacificus, 
from the silvery white spot in the middle of the wing, which is dis- 
tinctly shewn in flight (Gould, Handd. B. Austral. i. p. 120). The 
genus Hurystomus, which is one of the Coraciide (ROLLER), contains 
about half a dozen species, belonging to the Indian or Ethiopian 
Regions. 
DORR-HAWK, a name of the NIGHTJAR, from its feeding on 
the mischievous “ Dorr-Beetle ” (Jelolontha solstitialis). 
DOTTEREL (variously spelt), the diminutive of Dolt, a bird 
so called from its alleged stupidity ; for, as asserted by many old 
writers, if the fowler stretched out his arm or his leg, so did the 
Dotterel with its homologous limb. So proneis mankind to believe 
any silly story of what it is the custom to call “ Animal Instinct,” 
-that this foolish notion prevails to the present day among many 
who pass for zoologists. Yet the true meaning was told to 
Willughby in or before 1676: one Peter Dent, a Cambridge 
apothecary, having written to him the information supplied by a 
gentleman of Norfolk well acquainted with the “sport” of catching 
these birds, to the effect that instead of their aping the gestures 
of the men, it was the men who aped those of the birds, as the 
latter were being driven into the nets; for, as every one who has 
watched the actions of Limicole must know, it is their common 
habit as they run to extend a wing and often simultaneously a leg. 
This belief in the foolishness of the species has been fostered also 
by its name morinellus, bestowed by Caius with a double meaning 
—hbeing a diminutive of morus, a fool, and having reference to 
Morini, the ancient name of the people of Flanders, where he had 
I! 
