332 THE PLOVERS 



selling at as much as six and seven shillings a couple ; even a modest 

 proportion of that amount which would fall to the share of the fowlers 

 would have been sufficient inducement for them to kill as many as 

 possible during the short season. 



Their feathers were largely in demand for making artificial flies 

 for fishing, and probably as many were killed for this purpose as for 

 the market. They were very regular in their arrival at these resting- 

 places, so much so that in different localities the 9th, 10th, or 12th of 

 May was known as " dotterel day." And on these dates they were 

 eagerly awaited. They were called dotterel, and morinellus, because 

 of their tameness or indifference, which was so marked as to be 

 regarded as foolishness. It was a poor reward for their lack of fear of 

 man, to be christened fools first and then killed. They have either 

 learnt a little wisdom since, and altered their route of migration, or 

 more probably the race that visited this country paid the penalty of 

 foolishness by being all but exterminated, as so few come now to the 

 old localities that they pass almost unnoticed. 



Had the " Wild Birds Protection Act " and the " close " season 

 come a little earlier, it might have made all the difference to the 

 dotterel as a nesting species in this country. Previous to the Act 

 there were always dotterel in Cambridge market in May ; even in the 

 early years of the close season I have seen them exposed for sale, 

 but as it was gradually made plain to game-dealers that the Act really 

 made it illegal to handle even " ordinary wild birds " during the close 

 season, they were no longer exposed, although they were still occasion- 

 ally brought to market and sent to certain old-fashioned customers, 

 with whom the fashion of eating dotterel in May died hard, just as 

 the fashion of eating plovers' eggs is dying hard at the present day. 



The history of the dotterel in this country goes back to the 

 sixteenth century, and Yarrell quotes some quaint old descriptions of 

 the methods of the fowlers in taking them. There was a curious sup- 

 position that the birds imitated the actions of the fowlers, and that this 

 habit assisted in their capture. Dr. Key sent to Gesner a description, 



