DOTTEREL. 83 



ing and hawking, his favourite diversions ; and on the 

 following day, "apres que son Excellence] eut disne 

 avecq sa Ma tQ le due de Lenox qui Pestoit venu visiter 

 deuant disne le menu a la chasse ou Ton courrut le lievre, 

 fit voller ung espervier et prient des Doterelles, oiseau qui se 

 laisse prendre par une estrange maniere ainsy que nous 

 avons veu. Et qui se peult mieulx dire qu'escripre." To my 

 friend Mr. J. E. Harting, of Kingsbury, I am greatly 

 indebted for a verbatim copy of such portions of the 

 original MS.* as relate to these pastimes, it being 

 important to ascertain the name actually used by this 

 writer, in order to identify satisfactorily the species re- 

 ferred to. He suggests also, and apparently with much 

 reason, that "the writer must have enquired the name 



* A great inaccuracy occurs in Sir Frederick Madden' s trans- 

 lation, the sentence " They flew a sparrow-hawk and took some 

 doterelles" (in the original "fit voller" caused to fly) being rendered, 

 " they saw a hawk seize some doterels ;" the real meaning being 

 that " they took or seized some dotterels, while, as we may suppose, 

 the sparrow-hawk was flying. The hawk being let loose would 

 make the dotterel lie close so that they could be netted, or driven 

 into a net ; and that dotterel were driven into nets we have Wil- 

 lughby's evidence in his " Ornithology" (1678), p. 310. After men- 

 tioning the common belief of their extending a foot or a wing as the 

 fowler did, he quotes the information of Mr. Peter Dent as follows : 

 "A gentleman of Norfolk, where this kind of sport [the catching of 

 dotterels] is very common, told me [Mr. Dent] that to catch dotterels 

 six or seven persons usually go in company. When they have 

 found the birds, they set their net in an advantageous place, and 

 each of them holding a stone in either hand, get behind the birds, 

 and striking their stones often one against another rouse them, which 

 are naturally very sluggish ; and so by degrees coup them, and 

 drive them into the net. The birds being awakened do often stretch 

 themselves, putting out a wing or a leg, and in imitation of them 

 the men that drive them, thrust out an arm or a leg for fashion 

 sake, to comply with an old custom. But he thought that this 

 imitation did not conduce to the taking of them, for that they 

 seemed not to mind or regard it." 



M 2 



