DOTTEREL. 257 



Family CHARADRIID^). Genus EUDROMIAS. 



Sub-family CHARADRIIN&. 



DOTTEREL. 



EUDROMIAS MORINELLUS (Linnceus). 

 Single Brooded. Laying season, June and early July. 



BRITISH BREEDING AREA: The Dotterel is one of 

 the rarest and most local birds that breed within the 

 area of the British Islands. It is more than doubtful 

 whether this species now breeds in any part of England, 

 although formerly it used to do so on many of the chalk 

 ranges in the south, and more recently in the Lake district 

 and on the Cheviots. It now breeds sparingly on the 

 hills of Dumfries-shire, more frequently on the Grampians 

 in North Perthshire, and on the borders of Inverness- 

 shire and Ross-shire. It has been known to nest on the 

 Orkneys. In Ireland it is of only accidental occurrence, 

 never having been known to breed. 



BREEDING HABITS : The Dotterel is a summer migrant 

 to our islands, reaching them in small parties towards 

 the end of April or early in May. All through the 

 summer the Dotterel continues more or less gregarious 

 and social, and numbers of nests may be found within 

 a small area of suitable ground. The favourite breeding- 

 haunts of this species are wild uplands and plateaux, the 

 rough, hummocky moorlands or tundras, spread with 

 boulders and clothed with moss, cranberries, and other 

 mountain vegetation. Upon their first arrival the birds 

 are in flocks, but these soon separate more distinctly 

 into pairs and retire to the breeding-places. The nest is 

 invariably placed on the ground, amongst the short moss 

 or grass near the mountain-tops, or on the open moor. 

 Nest it can scarcely be called, for it is simply a hollow 



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