

THE SHARP-TAILED DOTTERELS. 155 



naturalists have found the nest in Banffshire. Colonel Feilden 

 describes the ways of the female bird at her nest. They are 

 very similar to those of the Grey Plover, and, as long as he was 

 near the nest, the bird flew from place to place around him, 

 but when he had gone farther off she " alighted on a hummock, 

 looked round, ran along the narrow paths for some distance, 

 when she again mounted a hummock to make further observa- 

 tions, and, after passing backwards and forwards in a similar 

 manner, finally stood still at the nest, and settled down on the 

 eggs." She allowed him to approach very closely before leaving 

 them, when she fluttered off, as if wounded, remaining at no 

 great distance, constantly uttering her plaintive note. 



Nest. None, the eggs being deposited in a hollow in the 

 mossy ground. 



Eggs. Three in number. Ground-colour greyish stone- 

 colour or light clay-brown, with a tinge of olive or greenish on 

 some eggs. The spots and blotches, most of which are con- 

 fluent, are mainly collected at the larger end of the eggs. In 

 the midst of the black markings a reddish shade is often seen, 

 but the underlying spots of purplish-grey are scarcely per- 

 ceptible. Axis, i '55-1 '7 inches; diam., i i. 



THE SHARP-TAILED DOTTERELS. GENUS OXYECHUS. 



Oxyechus, Reichenb. Av. Syst Nat. p. xviii. (1852). 



Type, O. vociferus (Linn.). 



The members of this genus differ from the other Dotterels 

 in having a very long and wedge-shaped tail, which is more 

 than half the length of the wings. There are four species of 

 Oxyechus known, one of them being the well-known "Kill-deer" 

 Dotterel of North America, while the other three, O. tricollaris, 

 O. bifrontatuS) and O.forbesi^ are all African. 



I. THE KILL-DEER DOTTEREL. OXYECHUS VOCIFERUS. 



Charadrius voriferus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 253 (1766); See- 



bohm, Brit. B. iii. p. 28, pi. 26 (1885). 

 ^Egialitis vocifera, B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 120 (1883) ; Saun- 



ders, ed. Yarn Brit. B. iv. p. 266 (1883) ; id. Man. Brit. B. 



p. 529 (1889); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xxv. (1893). 

 Oxyechus vodfents^ Sharpe,Cat. B. Brit.Mus. xxiv.p. 242 (1896). 



