C66 THE DOTTEREL. 



destructive creatures. In the garden next our own a Lapwing was kept, and lived for some 

 years, tripping featly over the grass and thoroughly at home. 



In its colouring the Lapwing is rather a handsome bird. The top of the head is black, 

 as is the long-pointed crest, which can be raised or depressed at will. The sides of the 

 face and neck are white, speckled with black ; the chin, throat, and breast are jetty black, 

 and from the chin a black streak runs under the eye. The upper part of the liody is 

 shinino- coppery green, glazed with purple, and the primary feathers of the wing are black, 

 with some greyish white at their tips. The upper tail-coverts are chestnut, and the tail is 

 half white and half black, the exterior feather on each side being almost wholly white. 

 Tlie under parts are white, changing to fawn on the under tail-coverts. In winter the chin 

 and throat are white. The yearling birds are mottled with buff on the back. The total 

 length of the bird rather exceeds one foot. 



The three Plovers represented in the engraving are common throughout England. 



The Golden Plover, sometimes called the Yellow Plover from its prettily coloured 

 plumage, is common in many parts of England, being found mostly in the more northern 

 districts of Great Britain, moving southward in the autumn. The spots which it selects 

 for its breeding-places are generally situated on open moors, where the vegetation is but 

 scanty, and water is at hand, although well below the level of the nest, rather high ridges, 

 with a dell slope, being its most favoured spots. It makes its simple preparations in the 

 beginning of April or the end of March, according to the season, choosing some little 

 depression in the soil, scratching it tolerably level, and laying in it a few bents and grass 

 stems. The eggs are usually four in number, and their colour is yellowish olive, blotched 

 with dusky brown. Like the eggs of the lapwing, they are arranged wdth their small 

 ends inwards. The Golden Plover also puts in practice sundry devices to draw an 

 intruder away from the nest, rising into the air when it has succeeded in its object, and 

 uttering an exultant whistling cry as it wheels off in safety. The female is very careful 

 about her eggs. While sitting, she crouches so low upon them that her speckled plumage 

 can hardly be distinguished from the earth ; and when she leaves her nest, she runs to 

 some little distance along the ground before she rises into tlie air, and returns after the 

 same cautious fashion. 



The young birds are active on foot, and are able to follow their parent within a very 

 short time after their escape from the egg-shell. They are pretty little creatures, covered 

 with thick dusky mottled down, and not easily to be discovered. 



The plumage of the Golden Plover varies generally according to age and the season of 

 year. In the summer, the top of the head and whole of the upper surface are greyish 

 black, mottled with triangular spots of golden yellow. The face, chin, liiroat, and under 

 surface of the body are jetty black, a white streak passing over the eyes itiid forehead, and 

 separating the mottlings of the head from the black of the face. The primaries are nearly 

 black, and the tail is barred with whitish grey and blackish brown. Below the wing there 

 is a band of white, and the under tail-coverts are white. In the winter the chin is white, 

 and the breast also dusky white, spotted with yellow ; and in late autumn and early spring 

 the changing plumage is curiously mottled with black, yellow, and white. The yearling 

 birds are more grey on tlie breast and lower parts than when they have attained their 

 second year's plumage. In total length this bird measures not quite one foot. 



The Dotterel has long been held as the type of stuj^idity, and to call a man a Dotterel 

 is considered as great an insult as to term him a goose or a donkey. 



Certainly, the Dotterel is not a very wise bird in some things, having but little of the 

 general wary habits of the Plovers, and allowing itself to be approached without displaying 

 much uneasiness. It was once thought to be so very inquisitive and so foolish as to 

 imitate all the actions of the fowler, holding out a wing if he held out an arm, lying flat 

 if he did the same, and so permitting the net to be thrown over it before it was aware of 

 any danger. It is not now ; o plentiful as it used to be, its numbers having been much 

 thinned by guns and nets. Its flesh is thought very good, and the bird finds a ready sale 

 in the poulterer's shop. The specific title, Morinellus, signifies a little fool. The cry of 

 tlie Dotterel is a kind of piping v/histle. 



