338 THE PLOVERS 



was quite near. She then stood up, and on his walking up to her, 

 " she fluttered away with wings and tail spread, just out of reach, for 

 30 yards, and then shut herself up like an umbrella, and walked 

 to the top of a mound and stood quietly watching." Mr. Buxton and 

 his companion then lay down quite near, and watched her, as she, 

 after a few sidelong glances, ran back to the eggs and settled on 

 them immediately. When on the nest the bird was heard to utter 

 a low note " like a meadow-pipit squeaking very softly." It allowed 

 itself to be almost touched before moving from the nest, and then 

 went through the same performance as before. It was apparently 

 taken for granted that this bird was a female. Before the nest was 

 discovered, its mate was seen flying in a large circle, uttering a mono- 

 tonous metallic whistle, "peek-peek-peek" which was believed to be its 

 love-song. 1 



Another observer described a dotterel as approaching its nest 

 very circuitously, cowering and doubling in and out among stones 

 and mounds of moss. When put from the nest it ran straight away. 

 The same observer wrote : " I know of no bird that seems to lose 

 itself in its environment more completely than the dotterel, unless it 

 is the Kentish-plover, on the flint and shingle of the beach." He also 

 noticed that the bird was more indistinct when running away, show- 

 ing a back view, than when head on. 2 



With regard to the notes of the dotterel, it is difficult to reconcile 

 the various renderings. The above "peek-peek-peek" and Mr. Aplin's 

 " wit-e-wee, wit-e-wee, wit-e-wee " (ante, p. 334), may be the same note. Mr. 

 Blackwood (in litt.) describes the commonest call by breeding birds, 

 and also by birds on passage, as resembling the regular creak of an 

 unoiled wheel-barrow. This would agree with the "peek-peek." Turning 

 to Kaumann, we get an entirely different impression. He describes 

 it as somewhat softer than that of the golden-plover, a pleasant "drrr," 

 in which can be heard the it, so that it becomes "drrii" or "diirr" 

 And he states that the birds can be attracted by this note made with 



1 Field, 1906, vol. cviii. p. 2. 2 Ibid., 1902, vol. xcix. p. 942. 



