336 THE PLOVERS 



no lining whatever, and that the hollow is simply pressed down, not 

 scraped out. 1 Nests would appear, however, to vary in this respect, 

 as two found in one day in Scotland were "lined with a plentiful 

 supply of red cranberry leaves," 2 which must have been brought from 

 some distance. It is not certain whether the dotterel makes 

 additional scrapes or "false nests." The finding of one has been 

 recorded, 3 which in itself is hardly sufficient on which to make 

 a general statement. Mr. G. G. Blackwood, who has spent much 

 time watching dotterel in the nesting season, informs me (in litt.) 

 that he has never found a " false nest," but he adds " the actual nest 

 is so slight that a false one would be very easily overlooked." 



The dotterel lays three eggs, and, as is usually the case when a 

 species of the Wader group lays less than four, these are less acutely 

 pyriform than the common type of the family. The clutch seldom 

 probably never exceeds three in this country, but four eggs were 

 found in a nest by Dr. Walter in the Taimyr Peninsula. 4 According 

 to Heysharn, the dotterel is by no means solitary in the nesting season, 

 a few pairs generally associating together, but the Rev. H. H. Slater, 

 who visited their haunts in Northern Europe, states that two nests 

 are rarely within a mile of each other. 5 The latter is almost certainly 

 the case in Great Britain at the present time, whatever it may have 

 been in Heysham's time. The Rev. H. H. Slater found two males 

 incubating during the day, and thought it probable that they do so 

 almost entirely, the females merely relieving the males when the 

 latter leave to feed. 6 Gloger also found the male incubating, 7 and Mr. 

 Blackwood thinks that the female bears no share in the duty. He 

 adds, however, that it is not at all easy to distinguish one sex from the 

 other, in spite of the assertion that the female is the brighter of the 

 two. There is no doubt a good deal of individual variation, and I do 

 not think that the full breeding plumage is assumed by year-old birds, 



1 J. A. Harvie-Brown, Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glasgow, ii. p. 237. 



1 Field, 1902, vol. xcix. p. 942. 3 J. A. Harvie-Brown, op. cit. 



4 Ibis, 1904, p. 229. 5 British Birds, their Nests and Eggs, v. p. 66. 



6 Ibid. 7 Nauinann, Vogel Mitteleuropas, viii. p. 50. 



