248 EEMIXISCENCES OF A SPORTSMAX. 



the mountains of Cumberland and Westmoreland, as they 

 'appear there in May, and are not seen after the breeding 

 season. Ten or twelve were once shot on the top of 

 Skiddaw in June, and from Keswick, in Cambridgeshire, 

 Dr. Keysham once received some dottrell eggs. They are 

 also said to breed on several hills in the Highlands. 

 Linnaeus says they are frequent in Dalecarlia and the 

 Lapland Alps, and visit Sweden in May. They are 

 numerous in the north of Europe, where we may suppose 

 them to breed. In the northern parts of Kussia and 

 Siberia they are known to do so, appearing northward 

 only in their migrations. Their mnter residence is 

 unknown. 



The dottrell is considered a very foolish bird, and was 

 believed to imitate the action of the fowler by stretch- 

 ing out a wing when the other extended his arm, con- 

 tinuing his imitation regardless of the net that was to 

 ensnare him. To follow this sport in catching them 

 Willoughby states, " six or seven persons go together ; 

 when they have found the birds in an advantageous 

 place, and each of them holding a stone in either hand, 

 they get behind the birds, and striking the stones often 

 one against the other, rouse them from their natural 

 sluggishness, and by degrees drive them into the net." 

 At the present time sportsmen watch the arrival of the 

 dottrell, and shoot them, the former mode of driving 

 them into the net having been long out of practice. 

 The female weighs about four ounces ; the length of the 

 female is ten inches, breadth nineteen and a-half ; the 

 bill black, slender, depressed in the middle, and not an 

 inch long ; the forehead brown and grey, mottled with 

 white ; top and back of the head dull black, former 



