112 ORALLY. 



tating the call. As they seldom take very long flights, it is 

 probable that not many of the British ones leave the country ; 

 but they throng in great numbers to those humid places 

 which are not apt to be frozen, and especially to the flat 

 shores of the sea. In the higher grounds, they have all the 

 characters of summer visitants, as none stay there during 

 winter; and on the sea-shore they have much of the cha- 

 racter of winter visitants, as few or none remain there to 

 breed, though they breed on the elevated wastes of some of 

 the southern parts of the country. 



THE DOTTEREL (Cliaradrius morinellus). 



A figure of the dotterel, in the breeding plumage, is given 

 at the bottom of the plate opposite, on a scale of one-third 

 the lineal dimensions, or twice as much in line as that of the 

 lapwing, which stands immediately above ; and from that the 

 colours and form of the bird can be better understood than 

 from description. 



Dotterels get both their common English name and their 

 specific one of morinellus, from their supposed stupidity. 

 Dotterel is nearly the same word as " dolt " or " dotard ;" 

 and there are places in the north where it is used by the 

 common people as a synonyme for both. Morinellus is from 

 morus, " a fool." The bird is certainly easily shot or betrayed 

 into snares ; but it appears to have that character only when 

 it comes to the lower grounds ; for, from the numbers that 

 appear on the low ground near the coasts, in the southern 

 and eastern parts of the country in autumn, and even from 

 those that appear as if on their way to the south-eastern part 

 of the Grampians in the spring, and thence back again in the 

 autumn, numbers of them must breed somewhere in the 

 country ; and yet the old birds are not often seen in the 

 breeding time, and the eggs are seen very seldom. 



Their habits in the breeding places (at least as British 



