DOTTEREL. 247 



its appearance in Cornwall and Devonshire, and but little 

 oftener in Dorsetshire. In Wiltshire, Berkshire, Sussex, 

 Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, and Norfolk, small 

 flocks, or " trips" as they are called, of Dotterel are seen in 

 the spring on their way to their breeding-ground, which, in 

 many instances, is very far north, and those or others are again 

 seen in the autumn on their return, their numbers then re- 

 inforced by the addition of the young birds of the year. 

 On the chalk hills about Royston on the borders of Hertford- 

 shire and Cambridgeshire, these birds have been observed 

 for many years to make their appearance during the last 

 week of April and the first week in May ; they are seen for 

 about ten days, some probably moving on to the northward, 

 and their places being supplied for a time by other arrivals 

 from the south ; but during the past fifty years there has 

 been a gradual and marked diminution in their numbers in 

 the above locality, partly owing to enclosure. They are 

 found generally on the fallows, or newly-ploughed lands 

 near the edges of the downs, or sheep-walks, where they 

 appear to feed on worms, slugs, insects, and their larvae. 

 From these counties the birds pass on to more northern 

 localities, and are seen in Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, 

 Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Westmoreland, Cumber- 

 land, Northumberland, and various parts of Scotland, always 

 inhabiting high ground. In the neighbourhood of the 

 English lakes it is believed that a few pairs still nest, 

 although in numbers sadly diminished since the late T. C. 

 Heysham contributed the following, and now classic, account 

 of the habits of this species at its breeding- ground* : 



" I will now narrate," says this gentleman, " as suc- 

 cinctly as possible, what has fallen under my own obser- 

 vation relative to the habits and economy of this bird. 



* The principal causes of the decrease of the Dotterel in the Lake district have 

 been the demand for its feathers for artificial flies by the local anglers, and the 

 temptation offered to the miners by the presence in their immediate vicinity of a 

 bird so good to eat, or so certain to fetch its price from the fly-dresser. The 

 greed of the ornithologist or of the egg-collector, so often stigmatized, has, in 

 this case, exercised no appreciable effect upon its numbers. 



