34 BRITISH BIRDS. 



females in as brilliant plumage as that of the handsomest males. More 

 modern ornithologists have advanced a step still f urther, and have come to 

 the conclusion that the female is the more brilliantly coloured bird. It is 

 probable that the last view is the correct one, and that the numerous 

 brilliantly coloured males in collections have been incorrectly sexed. The 

 explanation of such a remarkable fact is probably to be found in the 

 circumstance that the male not only shares the duties of incubation with 

 the female, but, after the young are hatched, takes even a more prominent 

 part than she does in tending them. On the sole occasion when I had the 

 good fortune to meet with unfledged young of this species, they appeared to 

 be in charge of one bird only, which, on dissection, proved to be a male. 



The adult female Dotterel in full breeding-plumage is a very handsome 

 bird. The general colour of the upper parts is pale greyish brown, darker 

 on the wings and tail ; the shaft of the first primary is white, and the outer 

 tail-feathers are broadly tipped with white ; the wing-coverts, the inner- 

 most secondaries, and the scapulars are edged with rich buff; the crown 

 and hind head are brownish black, the feathers of the forehead with pale 

 margins ; and from the base of the bill two broad white stripes extend, one 

 over each eye, and join together on the nape. The chin and upper throat 

 are white, and the cheeks and ear-coverts are white spotted with dark 

 brown ; the greyish brown of the back extends round the neck across the 

 breast, where it suddenly ends in a white band, obscurely margined both 

 above and below with nearly black ; the underparts below the breast are 

 rich chestnut, shading into nearly black on the belly, which abruptly 

 changes into huffish white on the thighs, vent, and under tail- coverts; the 

 axillaries and under wing-coverts are pale grey. Bill black ; legs and feet 

 dull yellowish brown, claws black ; irides hazel. 



The male differs from the female in having the black feathers of the 

 head and the brownish-grey feathers of the mantle more or less margined 

 with buff, and in having the black on the belly somewhat less developed. 

 After the autumn moult the black of the head is much duller and more 

 marked with buff, the eye-stripe and throat are buff, the white band with 

 its black margins across the breast is absent, and the rest of the under- 

 parts are a uniform huffish white. In the young in first plumage the 

 ground-colour of the upper parts is very much darker than in adults in 

 winter plumage, the buff margins of the scapulars and innermost secon- 

 daries are more developed and are interrupted by almost black spots on 

 the tips, the underparts are much more suffused with buff, the feathers 

 of the breast have dark brown centres, and the dark belly is faintly indi- 

 cated. Birds of the year are somewhat intermediate in colour between 

 young in first plumage and adults in winter plumage. Young in down 

 are buffish white, marked on the head, back, and wings with chestnut and 

 black. 



