DOTTEREL. 491 



on some of the mountains in Scotland. Braemar, in Aber- 

 deenshire, has been named. Colonel Thornton, in his 

 Sporting Tour, mentions having seen several pairs in 

 Scotland in the middle of August ; and Montagu saw 

 them in pairs in that country sufficiently late in spring 

 to warrant the conjecture that they bred there. An egg 

 in my own collection was obtained on the Grampian Hills ; 

 this example is of a yellowish olive colour, blotched and 

 spotted with dark brownish black: one inch seven lines 

 and a half in length, by one inch two lines and a half 

 in breadth. 



In the summer of 1850 a nest was found on the top of 

 Hoy, in the Orkneys, as recorded by C. R. Bree, Esq., 

 in the Zoologist. 



Dotterel were more numerous than usual in the London 

 market during the spring of the year 1845: I counted 

 seventeen couple at the shop of a poulterer at one time. 

 In July I heard of one nest of four eggs having been 

 taken on Saddleback. 



M. Temminck says the Dotterel is rare in Holland ; that 

 they are found, but only in small numbers, on the highest 

 mountains of Bohemia and Silesia, at elevations from four 

 thousand five hundred to four thousand eight hundred feet. 

 In France, according to M. Vieillot, they are only seen on 

 their passage in spring and autumn ; and they are included 

 in the Catalogues of the Birds of Provence, Genoa, and 

 Italy. They are seen in the Grecian Archipelago and the 

 Levant ; and the Zoological Society have received a speci- 

 men sent by Messrs. Dickson and Ross from Trebizond. 

 Some are said to pass the winter in the south of Italy, 

 in Sicily, and the Levant. 



The Dotterel are well known as most excellent birds for 

 the table ; those that in spring and autumn are sent to 

 the London market, find ready sale at seven or eight shil- 



