844 THE DOTTEREL 



THE DOTTEREL 



EUDROMIAS MORINELLUS 



Winter — head dusky ash ; over each eye a reddish white band, meeting at 

 the nape ; face whitish, dotted with black ; back dusky ash, tinged with 

 green, the feathers edged with rust-red ; breast and flanks reddish ash ; 

 gorget white ; beak black ; irides brown ; feet greenish ash. Summer — 

 face and a band over the eyes white ; head dusky ; nape and sides of 

 the neck ash ; feathers of the back, wing-coverts, and wing-feathers, 

 edged with deep red ; gorget white, bordered above by a narrow black 

 line ; lower part of the breast and flanks bright rust-red ; middle of the 

 belly black ; abdomen reddish white. Young birds have a reddish tinge 

 on the head, and the tail is tipped with red. Length nine inches and a 

 half. Eggs yellowish olive, blotched and spotted with dusky brown. 



The Dotterel, Little Dotard, or Morinellus, ' little fool ', received 

 both the one and the other of its names from its alleged stupidity. 

 ' It is a silly bird ', says Willughby, writing in 1676 ; ' but as an 

 article of food a great delicacy. It is caught in the night by lamp- 

 light, in accordance with the movements of the fowler. For if he 

 stretch out his arm, the bird extends a wing ; if he a leg, the bird 

 does the same. In short, whatever the fowler does, the Dotterel 

 does the same. And so intent is it on the movements of its pursuer, 

 that it is unawares entangled in the net.' Such, at least, was the 

 common belief ; and Pennant alludes to it, quoting the following 

 passage from the poet Drayton : 



Most worthy man, with thee 'tis ever thus, 

 As men take Dottrels, so hast thou ta'en us 

 Which, as a man his arme or leg doth set, 

 So this fond bird will likewise counterfeit. 



In Pennant's time, Dotterels were not uncommon in Cambridgeshire, 

 Lincolnshire, and Derbyshire, appearing in small flocks of eight or 

 ten only, from the latter end of April to the middle of June ; and 

 I have been informed by a gentleman in Norfolk that, not many 

 years since, they annually resorted also in small flocks to the plains 

 of that county. Of late years, owing most probably to their being 

 much sought after for the table, they have become more rare ; and 

 the same thing has taken place in France. 



The Dotterel has been observed in many of the English counties 

 both in spring and autumn, and has been known to breed in the 

 mountainous parts of the north of England ; but I may remark 

 that the name is frequently given in Norfolk and elsewhere to the 

 Ringed Plover, to which bird also belong the eggs collected on the 

 sea-coast, and sold as Dotterel's eggs. 



