152 FIELD NOTES FOR THE YEAR. 



collect more and more in flocks on the. seashore or other 

 places which suit their habits. In the lower parts of the 

 country the dottrel is now a very rare bird, and it is seldom 

 that many of them are killed, although they are so tame and 

 easy of approach as to have obtained for themselves the 

 local name of the " foolish dottrel." It is one of the pe- 

 culiarities of this bird that one pair only breeds on the same 

 hill or mountain. Whilst you may see thousands of golden 

 plovers on a hillside during the breeding season, you will 

 never find above one pair of dottrel on each ridge. The ring- 

 dottrel and other shore birds become at this season more 

 numerous day by day. Many insectivorous birds, also, such 

 as the whitethroat, redstart, &c., seem to draw gradually 

 towards the eastern coasts of the kingdom, as if in readiness 

 to depart. The wheatears almost entirely leave the wild 

 rocky mountains of the North, where they breed, and are 

 during this month caught in great numbers on the South- 

 downs of Sussex. 



The regularity of the appearance and disappearance of 

 birds in different districts is one of the most striking and 

 Interesting parts of their history, and is a subject worthy of 

 more attention than it has hitherto received. It is well 

 known to many sportsmen that woodcocks appear in certain 

 woods and even under certain holly bushes, or other favourite 

 spots, on the same day of the same month year after year, 

 and in like manner and with equal punctuality do number- 

 less smaller birds, of less notoriety and of less consequence to 

 the sportsman, make their annual Sittings northwards or 

 southwards. On referring to notes which I have made 

 during several years, I find that I have seen many migratory 

 birds for the first time in each year, on either the very same 

 day of the month or within one day of it. 



Even in the insect world the same punctuality in their 

 change of abode is kept up, and an observant " out-of-door " 

 entomologist will tell almost to a day when any particular 

 moth or butterfly will first appear. The exclusiveness of 

 some butterflies as to their locality is a very striking 

 peculiarity of this insect. You may, year after year, find a 

 certain kind in great numbers within a space of a hundred 

 yards, but you may search in vain for a single specimen over 

 the whole surrounding country ; although both as to plants 

 and soil it may seem as favourable for their production as 

 the spot to which they confine themselves. I was told by a 



