DOTTEREL. 895 



a perfect egg was taken out of a female, wliich had been re- 

 cently killed on Robinson; and on the 26th of May 1834, 

 I received four Dottrels from Keswick, which had been shot 

 on Great Gavel the day before. In the ovary of one of 

 them I found an egg almost quite ready for exclusion, being 

 a difference of nearly eight weeks. So great a discrepancy 

 in all probability is of very rare occurrence ; yet it will sub- 

 sequently appear that eggs recently laid, and a young bird, 

 a few days old, were found on the same day, at no great dis- 

 tance from each other. The males assist the females in the 

 incubation of their eggs. How long incubation continues I 

 have not yet been able to ascertain ; but I am inclined to 

 think that it rarely lasts much longer than eighteen or twenty 

 days. A week or two previous to their departure, they con- 

 gregate in flocks, and continue together until they finally 

 leave this country, which takes place sometimes during the 

 latter part of August, at others not before the beginning of 

 September. A few birds no doubt are occasionally seen after 

 this period ; but they are either late broods, or birds that 

 are returning from more northern latitudes. This autumn I 

 visited several breeding-stations on the 25th of August, and 

 again on the 2nd of September, but in neither instance could 

 I observe a single individual. 



" Anxious as I have been for several years past to procure 

 the eggs of the Dottrel for the purpose of adding undoubted 

 specimens of so rare an egg to my cabinet, as well as to jJi'ove 

 beyond all doubt that this bird breeds in Cumberland ; yet it 

 was not until the present year that I had the gratification of 

 accomplishing an object which I have had so long in view. 

 After repeated excursions through the lake district this sum- 

 mer for the express purpose, I was so fortunate as to obtain 

 their eggs in two different localities, — namely, three on 

 Whiteside, contiguous to Helvellyn, on the 29th of June, 

 and two on the 5th of July on Robinson, in the vicinity of 



