32 ON THE OCCURRENCE OF THE DOTTEREL IN DORSET. 



eggs about the 26th of May, but the greater part seldom com- 

 mence before the first or second week in June. It would appear, 

 however, from the following facts, that they vary exceedingly in 

 this respect. On the 19th July, 1833, a perfect egg was taken 

 out of a female, which had been recently killed on Kobinson, and 

 on the 26th of May, 1834, I received four Dotterels from Kes- 

 wick, which had been shot on Great Gravel the day before. In 

 the ovary of one of these I found an egg almost quite ready for 

 exclusion, being a difference of nearly eight weeks. So great a 

 discrepancy in all probability is of rare occurrence, yet it will 

 subsequently appear that eggs recently laid, and a young bird 

 a few days old, were found on the same day, at no great distance 

 from each other. The males assist the females in the incubation 

 of their eggs. How long incubation continues I have not yet 

 been able to ascertain, but I am inclined to think that it rarely 

 lasts much longer than eighteen or twenty days. A week or two 

 previous to their departure, they congregate in flocks, and con- 

 tinue together until they finally leave this country, which takes 

 place sometimes during the latter part of August, at others not 

 before the beginning ' of September. A few birds no doubt 

 are occasionally seen after this period, but they are either late 

 broods, or birds that are returning from more northern latitudes. 

 This autumn I visited several breeding-stations on the 25th of 

 August and again on the 2nd of September, but in neither 

 instance could I observe a single individual." * 



* Ibid., vol. ii., pp. 392-5. 



