Chapter XXIII. 



PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. 



One df the prettiest of the common plovers is the dotterel, 

 our eastern variety being known as ^gialitis veredus or by- 

 other classical names accordingtothetasteof theornithologist. 

 Dotterels are three-toed, and some authorities separate them 

 intoadifferent group by themselves. They are not quite so big 

 as golden plovers are in England, the female being the larger 

 and the finer looking bird. The eastern representative has 

 a white head and neck with a ruddy chestnut breast terminated 

 by a black belt, the remainder of the under parts being white. 

 The upper colouring is mainly brown in tint, the wings being 

 darker and the legs a yellowish white. The main distinction, 

 however, is the ruddy breast. One may at times in the proper 

 season see bunches of them being hawked about the street 

 for sale. They migrate in immense numbers. 



When the world was young, and man in a state of such 

 innocence, from a sporting point of view, as the Chinese 

 villager is to-day (for the simple reason that he cannot 

 afford to buy a gun) the dotterel seems to have grown up 

 under an assurance of human harmlessness. This hereditary 

 belief remained longer than the innocence afore-mentioned, 

 and the consequence was that the birds retained their trust 

 too long. Then, of course, they were called fools for their 

 trustfulness, "dotterel" and "dotty" being different forms of 

 the same word. It is curious that some kinds of birds should 

 thus continue to be apparently without fear of man. I have 

 caught a "booby" myself on a ship's rail, its name being 

 perfectly descriptive. But the dotterel is by no means a 

 fool where its young are concerned. Even so acute an 

 observer as Thomas Edward, to whom reference has already 

 been made, was once misled by one. He was on one of his 

 niany naturalist wanderings when one day there rose near 

 him only to drop a few yards off, hobbling and tottering as 

 if wounded, a dotterel. He started in pursuit, and the same 

 thing happened again and again. Edward really thought the 

 bird was wounded by the shot of a friend which he had heard 



