136 THE GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL 



Time during which the Dotterel may be taken. — 



August ist to March ist. 



Habits. — The migrations of the Dotterel are by no means the 

 least interesting portion of the bird's economy. The story of its 

 journeying from North Africa to Arctic Europe in the space of a 

 single night reads more like the wildest of Eastern romance than 

 the faithful record of a little bird's spring passage to its breeding 

 grounds. This extraordinary journey is strongly confirmed by 

 the fact that during spring, of the tens of thousands of Dotterels 

 that leave Africa for the Arctic tundras, scarcely a single bird is 

 ever seen in the intervening country, in Central and Southern 

 Europe. It is a late migrant, not reaching our islands until the 

 end of April or beginning of May, and the Arctic regions a month 

 or more later still. The passage south in autumn is undertaken 

 much more slowly, beginning in September and lasting in the 

 extreme south of Europe through October into November. The 

 Dotterel is in no sense a coast bird, but loves to haunt the 

 upland fallows, and the bare downs and mountains, and rough, 

 barren pastures. In the Arctic regions it frequents the tundra — 

 a district very similar to our own moorlands, treeless, but covered 

 with a great variety of herbs and heaths, shrubs and flowers. 

 All through the summer the Dotterel is more or less gregarious, 

 and in autumn and winter becomes especially so. Upon its 

 arrival it is one of the tamest of birds, and admits of a very close 

 approach, but persecution soon teaches it to become more wary. 

 Its remarkable trustfulness has gained for it the name of " foolish " 

 Dotterel — the latter word in olden times being the equivalent 

 for a " foohsh, dull person." The Dotterel spends most of its 

 time on the ground, running hither and thither about the rough, 

 hummocky wastes, or over the newly ploughed fields and bare 

 downs. Its rather short neck and plump body are apt to lend it 

 the appearance of sluggishness, but when flushed it flies rapidly 

 enough, in true Plover style, with quick, regular beats of the long 

 wings. Its call-note is a prolonged and plaintive diit, varied 

 sometimes into drr, the two occasionally being uttered together 

 as drr-diit. This note in the pairing season becomes a trill, but 

 whether uttered by the male or female, or by both, remains to be 

 recorded. The food of the Dotterel consists of insects, worms. 



