THE DOTTEREL. * 257 



In the western counties, I have been quite unable to trace the 

 occurrence of the Dotterel except as a mere straggler. Mr 

 Struthers, of Larkhall, has mentioned to me that two specimens 

 were shot some years ago by Mr Graham on the farm of High 

 Fossil, near Glasgow, and preserved by a bird-stuffer in that city. 



Bearing in mind what has been said on the now comparative 

 scarcity of this bird in its accustomed halting places during its 

 migratory movements, it is not to be expected that the few 

 breeding localities from the heights of Dumfries to Inverness-shire 

 will be otherwise than scantily occupied. I am doubtful, indeed, 

 if more than a dozen pairs are to be found nesting together in any 

 part of Scotland. Passing by the stations said to exist on the 

 Grampians where no recent observations appear to have been made, 

 the northern limits of Perthshire, and the confines of Inverness- 

 shire, may be said to be the only breeding localities from which 

 collectors have had really authentic information up to the season 

 of 1870. In the case of a species which has of late years admittedly 

 become scarce in Scotland, I hope the reader will excuse any 

 reticence on my part with regard to what I know of its present 

 habitats. It would hardly be fair, indeed, to record the precise 

 locality where at most a few pairs return yearly to their breeding 

 places. I shall, therefore, content myself by giving the following 

 quotation from Dr M'Culloch, which includes at least one of the 

 stations, and which I think sufficient almost to prevent the risk of 

 inroad by the most adventurous egg collector or death-dealing 

 naturalist: " At the southern extremity, Loch Ericht terminates 

 in flat meadows, vanishing by degrees in the river of Rannoch, 

 and in that wild and hideous country which extends to Glen 

 Spean along the eastern side of Ben Nevis. This is, indeed, the 

 wilderness of all Scotland. The wildest wilds of Eoss-shire and 

 Sutherlandshire are accessible and lively compared to this; they 

 might, at least, contain people, though they do not, which this 

 tract never could have done, and never will, nor can. I know not 

 where else one can travel for two days without seeing a human 

 trace ! a trace, a recollection of animal life, and with the dreary 

 conviction that such a thing is impossible. It is, indeed, an incon- 

 ceivable solitude; a dreary and joyless land of bogs, a land of 

 desolation and grey darkness, of fogs ever hanging on Auster's 

 drizzly beard a land of winter, and death, and oblivion." Living in 

 such a country, it is well, perhaps, that Dotterels are not subject 



