242 THE DOTTEREL. 



St. Bees, where, it is said, the vernacular and the 

 polish differ a shade or two from those same at Oxford. 

 At table it fell to St. Bees' lot to sit opposite these 

 two couple of dots, and as a stiff examination under 

 Wrangham was never known to improve the appetite 

 for dinner, St. Bees did not feel disposed to jjeck. 

 At length, however, a savoury exhalation, from the 

 well frothed up quartet, having assailed his olfactories, 

 he commenced operations in good earnest. Very 

 shortly afterwards a gentleman on his right, with a 

 look but few could have misinterpreted, politely in- 

 vited St. Bees to partake of the dish he was carving. 

 '■No, no ! " replied our new made x\urora Borealis, as 

 he forked the fourth dotterel on his plate, "no, thank 

 ye, I'll stick to t' little burds ! " 



Dotterel occasionally visit Tees Bay, and rather 

 more frequently the shores of the Humber. Their 

 note is a piping whistle. They are excessively 

 cautious, and fond of their young in the manner of 

 the lapwing : meeting the intruder, which, if a dog, 

 they will flutter before, like the partridge, feigning to 

 be lame, and returning by that sweeping circling 

 flight common to their tribe. 



The Ringed Dotterel (Charadrius il'iaticula. 

 Linn.). — Ringed Plover, or Dotterel, or Sea Lark of 

 British authors. 



This chiefly maritime bird may, by good luck, be 

 found by the sportsman on the sandy and gravelly 

 shores of our islands. It resides the whole year in 

 our climates ; and is a lively little creature, with 



