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THE COMMON DOTTEREL. 



THE BLACK-THROATED DIVER. 



WHATEVER be the reason, this bird is yearly becoming a rarer 

 visitant to North Britain. Frequenting only a few favoured 

 places, and ten days or a fortnight being the limit of its stay, 

 no wonder that this beautifully-tinted variety is about as diffi- 

 cult to meet with as any of the whole plover tribe. Even in 

 the palmy days of Pennant, samples of the dotterel killed in 

 Britain were not very attainable, as the following anecdote, told 

 me by an English clergyman, will serve to show. 



When spending the winter at Great Malvern many years 

 ago, this gentleman, being one of the directors of the Museum, 

 was showing me the collection. I took occasion to ask him if 

 there were any dotterels in the neighbourhood, as I had been 

 trying for years to shoot one, but had never yet seen a single 

 specimen in its wild state. " When I was a young man," said 

 he, " Pennant made me the same complaint, and suggested 

 that, in place of being called common, the bird deserved the 

 title of the uncommon dotterel." Soon afterwards this clergy- 

 man procured and forwarded a specimen to Pennant. And 

 now comes the remarkable part of the story. For thirty years 

 he never met the great naturalist, who had been totally blind 

 for some time. After this long interval, happening to be in 

 the old man's company, he walked up to him and said, " I 



