300 RINGED DOTTEREL. 



and where they ascend far up the courses of rivers, 

 although there they reserve their maritime habits, 

 breeding among the pebbles of the sandbeds. They 

 are known also to breed in the warrens of Norfolk 

 and Suffolk, at a considerable distance from the 

 sea*; and we have found them upon the banks of 

 various rivers, from ten to twenty miles inland. In 

 our own vicinity they perform a short migration, 

 breeding, and retiring afterwards. On the banks of 

 the Annan, fifteen or sixteen miles from the coast, 

 one or two pairs annually take up their station, 

 seldom varying far from it. They arrive about the 

 same time with the common sandpiper, and are 

 sometimes later in retiring. When approached, at 

 the season of incubation, they show extreme anxiety, 

 fly around, incessantly uttering their piping whistle ,; 

 if a dog is near, they feign lameness, and flutter off, 

 returning to their charge in a circle. At first, when 

 leaving the nest, they skulk away from it before 

 taking wing, which they are easily enabled to do 

 from their unobtrusive colouring; and, from the 

 eggs, deposited in any slight natural cavity, being 

 of a greenish-grey colour, assimilating with the 

 shingle, they require great perseverance and an acute 

 eye to discover. The range of this species seems to 

 be northern Europe, running near to or within the 

 Arctic Circle, Asia Minor, t Japan. J We do not, 

 however, find it stated as an Indian bird by either 

 Elliot or Jerdan. 



* Messrs. Scales and Hoy and. Yarrell. 



t Fellowes Temminck. 



