DOTTEREL. 253 



237-241) ; Mr. Bateson found it breeding in Ross-shire ; 

 and Mr. D. Bruce has recently published (Macmillan's 

 Mag. 1881, p. 347) an account of finding its nest on the 

 Grampians, whence, many years ago, the Author obtained 

 an egg. It probably breeds in several other counties in 

 Scotland, and in the Orkneys, where the nest was found in 

 1850 ; but to the Shetlands it is only a rare visitant. In 

 Ireland the Dotterel is certainly uncommon, and of late 

 years there has been no evidence to strengthen Thompson's 

 supposition that it might be found breeding upon the 

 mountains of Tipperary. 



Dotterels are well known as most excellent birds for the 

 table ; those that in spring and autumn are sent to the 

 London market used to find ready sale at seven or eight 

 shillings a couple. They were more numerous than usual 

 there during the spring of the year 1845, when the Author 

 counted seventeen couple at the shop of a poulterer at 

 one time. Their sale during close-time being now pro- 

 hibited by law, it is to be hoped that, with the protection 

 afforded them on the spring migration, their numbers may 

 increase. 



Outside the British Islands the Dotterel has been observed 

 in Novaya Zemlya, and has, perhaps, occurred as a strag- 

 gler in Spitsbergen. It breeds in considerable numbers on 

 the Fells of Norway and Sweden, and in some parts of the 

 Ural mountains ; but over the rest of the Continent, with 

 the exception of the highlands of Styria, Bohemia, and 

 Transylvania, on which its eggs and young have been taken, 

 it appears to be only a migrant. On August 22nd, 1882, with 

 a south-west wind, a great many crossed the island of Heli- 

 goland ; ^id on September 4th a flock, going from east to 

 west, took ten minutes to pass. In Northern Africa, Egypt, 

 and Palestine, which appear to constitute its principal winter 

 quarters, its numbers, according to Canon Tristram, are 

 astonishing. It has occurred in Persia, and it ranges 

 through Turkestan to Siberia, breeding on the ByrraHga 

 mountains in the Taimyr Peninsula, in 74 N. lat., and on 

 the elevated ground whence the waters of the Irkut descend. 



