270 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



remains of uneaten food left near the nest show the food of the birds to have 

 consisted almost entirely of mice. I could only find traces of two birds, 

 which were, I think, a young thrush and a lark. — Julian G. Tdck (Tostock 

 Rectory, Bury St. Edmunds). 



Dotterel in the Lake District. — An interesting case concerning a rare 

 British bird was heard before the Westmoreland county magistrates at Kendal 

 on 2nd June last. A man named Gilpin, living in the mountain parish 

 of Kentmere, was charged under the Wild Birds Protection Act with having 

 in his possession four Dotterel during the close-time. A police-constable 

 proved seeing the four birds in the man's possession, one of which he 

 obtained and produced in court. The constable deposed that the man said 

 he had been three days on the hills after the birds; that he was obtaining 

 them for an angler, but was unaware he was doing wrong. For the prose- 

 cution the police called Mr. John Watson, the hon. secretary of the Lake 

 District Angling Association, who stated that he had made a study of birds 

 all his life, and was well acquainted with the Dotterel. He had no 

 hesitation in saying that the bird produced was a male Dotterel in breeding 

 plumage. In reply to the Bench, witness stated that the birds bred near 

 to the summits of the highest mountains, and that annually about this 

 season they stayed for a few days among the Kentmere hills on their way 

 to their summer nesting-haunts. Although never common they were, owing 

 to persecution, much more rare than formerly. Probably only a few pairs 

 now breed in the Lake District. In some cases dogs had been trained to 

 find the nests, so that the birds might be killed upon them. The feathers 

 of the Dotterel were held in high estimation by anglers for dressing flies, 

 though the skins are much less valuable than formerly. The Bench fined 

 defendant £1 (i.e. 5s. for each bird) and costs, or in default fourteen days' 

 imprisonment. It is to be hoped that this will be a warning to others. 



Montagu's Harrier nesting in Dorsetshire.— In ' The Zoologist ' for 

 December (p. 464), I reported the nesting of a pair of Montagu Harriers 

 in Dorsetshire. I have now to record a similar occurrence this summer, 

 and in the same neighbourhood, which leads me to suppose it is the same 

 pair. I regret to say they are now lying dead on my table, having beeu 

 brought to me by a local birdstuffer to be identified. The female was shot on 

 her nest while sitting on three eggs ; the male survived her only by one day, 

 and also fell to the keeper's gun, the keeper no doubt priding himself that he 

 had clone his master a good service. They are both in fully adult plumage, 

 and it is very much to be regretted that they were destroyed before I could 

 interfere to prevent it. — J. C. Mansel-Pleydell (Whatcombe, Blaudford). 



FISHES. 



Note on the Haddock. —The Brixham trawlers stationed here for the 

 season have been recently fishing in the Bristol Channel, and have brought 



