Ringed Plover. 385 



Hertford and Cambridgeshire as ' Dotterel day ;' but in Wiltshire 

 it certainly used to arrive at least a fortnight earlier. Its 

 appearance in the autumn was regarded by the shepherds as a 

 sign of coming winter, hence the following rhymes : 



1 When dotterel do first appear, 

 It shows that frost is very near ; 

 But when the dotterel do go, 

 Then you may look for heavy snow.'* 



139. RINGED PLOVER (Charadrius hiaticula). 

 Common enough on the seashore all round our coasts, this 

 species is such a lover of salt-water that it very rarely is seen far 

 inland. I have a notice by the late Rev. G. Marsh of a specimen 

 which was killed near Malmesbury, in 1838, and which I have 

 seen in his collection ; and that was the only individual which 

 had come to my notice as having appeared in Wilts, until, on 

 August 13th, 1881, a small flock of seven were seen in my parish 

 of Yatesbury by Mr. C. A. Tanner's shepherd, near the sheep- 

 fold. As the man happened to have a gun, he shot at them 

 and knocked down three, two of which he secured, and by the 

 courtesy of Mr. Tanner they were at once sent to me in the flesh, and 

 are now in my collection. Mr. Grant, of Devizes, tells me that one 

 was killed at Lavington at the same date. The Rev. A. P. Morres 

 once, and once only, saw a single bird in some water-meadows 

 immediately behind the Vicarage at Britford ; and I now learn 

 that Mr. Grant had received specimens from Netheravon in 1869, 

 and from Ufcot in 1873 ; and the Marlborough College Natural 

 History Society's Report speaks of one shot at Kennet on August 

 12th, 1881, probably one of the flock which came to Yatesbury. It 

 is a prettily marked little bird, light brown above and white below, 

 and is conspicuous for the distinct collar of white and then of black 

 which encircles its neck. It is indigenous in our island, and I 

 have met with it at all seasons on the Norfolk coast in consider- 

 able abundance ; like other shore-feeding birds, it follows the 

 tide, and runs rapidly at the edge of the advancing or retreating 

 waves, with neck outstretched and head thrown well back between 



* Dyer's ' English Folk-Lore,' p. 96. 



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