66 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



The nest is usually situated amongst the short wiry grass on mountain tops, 

 often near a stone or hummock ; rarely are two nests within a mile of each other. 

 The nest is a mere hollow, smoothed by the birds' breast ; there is no extraneous 

 lining, merely the scraps of grass and lichen that result from the bird revolving 

 in the hollow to shape and smooth it. Eggs three in number, tawny olive 

 in colour, richly and boldly spotted and blotched with black ; average length i J 

 inch, or a shade over, breadth 1,0 inch. 



As well as being almost absurdly tame, this is a very silent bird. I have 

 only heard it utter a low unmusical chirp, and this very rarely. Its food consists 

 of insects, chiefly beetles and larvae ; occasionally a leaf or two are found in the 

 stomach ; at other times small land shells are reported to form their food. As 

 far as my experience goes, which is not very extensive, the male incubates the 

 eggs ; this has been the case in both the instances in which I have dissected birds 

 shot off their eggs, (N.B. not in Britain). No doubt, in the inclement regions 

 where the Dotterel nests, the female will have to relieve the male when he wants 

 to feed. But amongst the Limicola the males are pattern fathers, and take upon 

 themselves much the larger share of domestic duties. 



The winter quarters of the Dotterel are North Africa, Egypt, Palestine, and 

 Persia. Eastward it gets much rarer on migration. It has occurred as a rare 

 straggler in Japan, but Swinhoe and Pere David never met with it on the China 

 coasts, nor have the keen collectors there of the present day. Gates does not 

 mention it as a visitor to Burmah, nor Jerdon to India, so that we are justified 

 in supposing it to be extremely rare in its far eastern range ; and the only modern 

 record, of which I am aware, of its breeding eastwards of mid- Siberia, is that of 

 Nordenskjbld, in Bering's Straits. In Palestine and North Africa it is very 

 abundant in winter, met with " in vast flocks," (Tristram). This author speaks 

 of the abundance of small snails in the Dotterel's winter quarters, in Palestine, 

 forming an abundant provender for the bird (" Ibis," 1868, p. 323) ; also of the 

 great number of Dotterels met with in the Sahara in winter, wherever grass was 

 found for their insect food (beetles) to live on (" Ibis," 1860, p. 78). In spite of 

 this apparent plenty in their winter quarters, where, apparently, they are not much 

 persecuted, in most countries Dotterel are reported to be decreasing in numbers 

 notably in our own. In some localities I know, where they used to appear 

 regularly in considerable numbers in autumn, within the last twenty years, 

 they are now only intermittently seen, and then in units, where they used to 

 be tens. 



Two were seen on a ploughed field and shot, not long ago, by a party of 

 autumn sportsmen, not many miles from niy present home. One was ultimately 



