568 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



breed. They appear in flocks in the spring and remain two or three 

 weeks, and resort principally to the fallows and open districts ; formerly 

 considerable numbers were killed at these times, but of late'their numbers 

 have been so much reduced that but few are now met with, and that 

 only by ranging the country on horseback very early in the morning 

 before the ploughman is abroad." It is very rare near Barnsley, Dr. 

 Farrar saying that he never obtained but one specimen, which was 

 shot at Staincross in 1830. 



Naturalists cannot bjit regret the great diminution in 

 the numbers of Dotterel during the last half century, and 

 although it was never an abundant nesting species with us, 

 being, as it still is, chiefly known as a passing visitor in spring 

 and autumn, it has a peculiar attraction to the ornithologist, 

 who usually has to content himself with observing the " trips " 

 on passage, and imagining the nesting economy. An early 

 reference to this bird in Yorkshire is contained in the 

 Allan MS. in connection with the Tunstall Museum, written 

 in the year 1791, as follows : " They are stupid birds, easily 

 enticed into a net. A dull person is proverbially called a 

 Dotterel " (Fox's " Synopsis," p. 90). 



As is generally known, the breast feathers of this bird were 

 formerly, and are still, in great request by fly fishers, and 

 such was the demand for them in comparatively recent times 

 that, from the Holderness coast right up to the high grounds 

 about Bempton and Speeton, the shooting of Dotterel was 

 a regular occupation in spring: for some coast gunners and 

 old shooters boast that in former days fifty years ago 

 they have taken as many as fifty couple in a season. The 

 destruction was carried on with equally disastrous effects 

 on the Wolds, moors, and commons inland, where the ranks 

 of the " foolish birds " were decimated to such an extent 

 that as many as forty-two couple were secured in a single 

 day on the Wolds of Canton, Sherburn, and Knapton. J. H. 

 Anderson of Kilham, in the East Riding, stated (Rennie's 

 " Field Naturalist," January 1834), 4( The Dotterel visit our 

 large open fields every spring and autumn, and dire is the 

 slaughter committed amongst them." It seems also, from 

 St.ickland's communication to Allis, that considerable numbers 

 were killed, but they had then (1844) been so much reduced 



