Additional Notes on Birds, by George Muirhead. 507 



visiting Lamberton Moor, on his estate. Small flocks, consisting 

 of about seven or eight, occasionally alight upon the Moor, be- 

 tween the 12th and the 20th of May The last flock was seen 

 two or three years ago, near the Church Eoad, which leads across 

 the Moor. On 12th May, 1868, six Dotterels were shot on Lam- 

 berton Moor out of a flock of seven, and on the 9th May, 1872, 

 seven others were killed there. I find, on referring to the " Old 

 Statistical Account of Scotland," written in 1795, that the Rev. 

 George M. Drummond, then minister of the parish of Mording- 

 ton, says, with regard to this bird : — " On the higher grounds in 

 this parish, Dotterels are supposed to appear sooner than in any 

 parts of the South of Scotland." One of the best accounts of the 

 Dotterel's breeding habits that I have read is given in the 4th 

 vol. of " McGillivray's British Birds." Mr John Colquhoun, in 

 his " Sporting Days," gives a very interesting description of an 

 expedition which he made to procure specimens of the Dotterel, 

 near Dunglass. He says — "Even in the palmy days of Pennant 

 samples of the Dotterel killed in Britain were not very attainable, 

 as the following anecdote, told me by an English clergyman, will 

 serve to show. "While spending the winter at Great Malvern, 

 six years ago, this gentleman, being one of the Directors of the 

 Museum, was showing me the collection, I took occasion to ask 

 him if there were any Dotterels in the neighbourhood, as I had 

 been trying for years to shoot one, but had never yet seen a single 

 specimen in its wild state. ' When I was a young man,' said he, 

 ' Pennant made me the same complaint, and suggested that in 

 place of being called common, the bird deserved the title of un- 

 common Dotterel.' " Mr Colquhoun states that " the usual time 

 of its arrival in the neighbourhood of Dunglass,* is from the 9th 

 to the 14th of May, and they remain about ten days or a fort- 

 night on their first ground before separating for the higher breed- 

 ing places. They come to this country in ' trips ' of from five or 

 six to a dozen, and pitch on undulating downs or hillocks near 

 the sea. Rough grass and heather has less attraction for the 

 • bird than thin fallow fields. But the most favourite feeding 

 ground of all is a newly broken up and sown down field of old 

 lea, where they seem to find the most abundant supply." The 

 gamekeeper at Foulden has informed m% that about 17 or 18 

 years ago, he used to see great flocks of Dotterels, about the 

 [* On Redheugh farm, five miles from Dunglass, — J. H.] 



