CHARADRID^E. 329 



For as you creep or cower, or lie or stoop or go, 

 So marking you with care, the apish bird doth do, 

 And acting everything, doth never mark the net, 

 Till he be in the snare which men for him have set." 



The Dotterel is said to deposit its eggs on the 

 ground without any nest, merely a hole in some dry 

 ground under cover of some vegetation, and gene- 

 rally near a moderately-sized stone or rock: the 

 tops of high hills or mountains are the favourite 

 breeding localities : on many of the mountains in 

 the Lake District they appear at one time to have 

 been numerous during the breeding-season, and 

 Yarrell gives a list of these mountains, but they 

 must now be getting scarce even there, for Mr. Cor- 

 deaux, in some interesting notes on the Ornithology 

 of the English Lakes,* speaking of the Dotterel, 

 says, " All endeavours to find these birds have been 

 unavailing. I have walked upwards of one hundred 

 miles over these hills, the greater portion of this 

 distance being very likely Dotterel ground, without 

 either seeing or hearing any." I have myself also 

 walked over most of the mountains mentioned by 

 Yarrell as favourite breeding-grounds with the same 

 result as Mr. Cordeaux. I may add that I have 

 been equally unfortunate on the Mendips. 



The food of the Dotterel is said to be chiefly 

 insects and their larvae, worms, beetles, small 



* * Zoologist' for 1867 (Second Series, p. 870). 



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