OP THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 145 



Australia. Differs from the Dotterel, amongst other characters, in having a 

 white belly in summer plumage, and in its small foot (middle toe without claw 

 shorter than bill, and less than half the tarsus. — Seebohm.) 



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 is unquestionably the 

 wildest of romance. This extraordinary story seems to receive confirmation by 

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

 Africa for the Arctic tundras, comparatively few birds are seen in the intervening 

 country, in Central and Southern Europe, but this is unquestionably because 

 Dotterels (as well as most, if not all other migrants) are far less prone to alight 

 en route in spring, travel quicker, and often at a much greater altitude than they 

 do in autumn.* The Dotterel 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. 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 ; indeed, an example has been shot in the British Islands 

 as late as the 23rd of the latter month. 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 region 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 wariness Its remarkable trustfulness has gained 

 for it the name of " foolish" Dotterel — the latter word in olden times being the 

 equivalent for a " foolish, 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 is 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 diet, varied sometimes into drr, the two 

 occasionally being uttered together as drr-dilt. This note in the pairing season 

 becomes a trill, but whether uttered by the male or female, or by both, remains to 

 be ascertained. The food of the Dotterel consists of insects, worms, and grubs, and 

 the tender buds and shoots of plants. In Palestine, Canon Tristram observed 

 this species feeding on various species of small white snails. During winter 

 the Dotterel often congregates into very large flocks, which frequent the various 

 southern steppes and plains, and here they are described as being just as tame as 

 in the breeding-places. 



*J(Conf. The Migration of Birds and The Migration of British Birds.) 



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