331 



female have the white belt across the breast, but 

 in the female it is less distinctly marked." 



Of the egg Yarrell says that one in his own collec- 

 tion is of a yellowish olive colour, blotched and spotted 

 with dark brownish black : they are rather smaller 

 than those of the Golden Plover, as is the bird. 



RING DOTTEREL, Charadrius hiaticula. The 

 pretty little Ring Dotterel, or " Ringed Plover," as 

 it is also called, is very numerous all along our 

 Somersetshire coast, certainly contradicting the 

 assertion of Meyer * that " on muddy or marshy 

 shores it is never seen : " had he only paid a visit 

 to the mud of Burnham and Watchet, and seen the 

 hundreds of Ring Dotterel there feeding with the 

 Purres on mud so deep and soft that if you shot 

 one on it you could not go to pick it up, nor would 

 any amount of beer tempt your boatman to try, he 

 would hardly have made such a statement with 

 regard to this bird. Of the Sanderling it may 

 possibly be true, as I have never seen one on our 

 muddy coast, or received a Somersetshire specimen, 

 though I have received specimens from Braunton 

 Burrows, in North Devon, which, though not very 

 far off, is without any of our mud ; and on the South 

 Devon coast, the three species, Purre, Sanderling 

 and Ring Dotterel, are nearly equally common ; but 

 there they have their choice of sand or mud, and 



* Meyer's ' British Birds,' vol. v., p. 182. 



