THE DOTTEREL. 115 



But the same habit renders them easy sport with the 

 gun, more especially if there are two sportsmen in company. 

 It is easy to get a good shot at a portion of them on the 

 one side. The report rouses them, and they fly to the 

 other side, where an equally good shot may be had, and 

 the report of that will drive them to the first sportsman. 

 Thus, two barrels right and two left, discharged alternately, 

 are sure to bring down a considerable number : and the 

 birds, as if they absolutely liked the sport, alight till the 

 sportsmen load, and then the same alternation of shots can 

 be repeated ; and even if they do fly off they come back 

 " when called for." In November, the whole of the birds 

 disappear ; but at what time of the day they take their final 

 flight, has not been ascertained. 



This habit of rising with more reluctance, and flying to a 

 shorter distance, than most birds do in the flocking season, 

 may in part account for the infrequency with which both the 

 birds and the nests are seen in the breeding places. All the 

 ground birds are indeed seen only accidentally in breeding 

 time. A field may abound with partridges, and yet one may 

 cross it in all directions without seeing either a bird or a 

 nest ; and on many of the heaths, where the voices of the 

 grous-cocks in the early morning show that there are plenty 

 of birds, one may wander through the whole day, and not see 

 a single wing, or even a head, appearing above the heather. 

 I have more than once crossed Minigag, from Blair to Loch 

 Inch on the Spey, and gone out of the foot-path (there is no 

 road either made or makeable across that wild summit) on 

 purpose, without ever seeing any bird, save wagtails about 

 the passage of the Bruar, from the lapwings on the skirts of 

 Athol to those on the skirts of Badenoch ; and yet there is 

 no want of grous or of plovers there, and I should suppose 

 none of dotterels. 



Dotterels always feed upon the ground, even when they 



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