The Dotterel. ^5 



Its breeding range extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and it selects for 

 nesting purposes barren, stony hill-tops, in Norway, Sweden, Northern Russia, 

 and Siberia ; and, in smaller numbers, in Great Britain, Transylvania, Styria, and 

 Southern Germany. In Britain it is a vanishing species, a circumstance much to 

 be regretted. It is one of the species which the "Wild Birds Preservation Act" 

 ought to protect, but that ill-considered, though amiable and well-intentioned, 

 measure is all but a dead letter. In Great Britain the Dotterel used to breed on 

 the stony summits of hills in Derbyshire, Cumberland, Northumberland, Galloway, 

 Dumfriesshire, Perthshire, Inverness, Ross, Aberdeen, Forfar, Kincardine, Banff 

 shires, and in Sutherland, but in several of these it is no longer found. Its 

 decrease is apparently due to its fearlessness, its edible qualities, and especiall}', 

 perhaps, to the fact that its feathers were used for a very killing trout fly. In 

 the north of England, when I was a boy, and sportsmen were not turned out by 

 the gross, shop-made, fishermen used to make their own flies, largely, and a 

 Dotterel's skin was to be found in most fly-flshermen's store. The axillaries of 

 the Starling were, however, practically as good as the feathers from the Dotterel's 

 back. 



The Dotterel is found on migration, in spring and autumn, near the coasts, 

 especially on the east side of Britain — less commonly inland — in small parties (or 

 " trips ") of from five individuals to a dozen or more. They frequent wolds and 

 heaths, feeding a good deal on ploughed land. They make their appearance in 

 this country, on the northward journey, about the last week in April, moving 

 southwards again at the end of August and beginning of September. 



Colour of adult : beak black ; iris dark hazel ; crown sooty, becoming blue- 

 black on the nape ; broad white eye-brows, meeting at the nape ; ear-coverts 

 sooty ; rest of upper parts drab, with pale sandy margins to most of the feathers, 

 turning to rufous on the wings ; tail feathers ginger-drab, the ends sooty with 

 white tips ; chin and throat white, minutely spotted and streaked with dark grey ; 

 breast grey-brown ; a white band across the centre of the breast, margined above 

 and less distinctly below, with black ; lower breast and belly rich tawny, with a 

 large black central patch ; legs and feet dusky green, claws black. Length 9^-9! 

 inches, closed wing 6-6^, first quill longest ; bill f inch. In all but very old birds, 

 the feathers of the forehead have sand3--white margins, producing a speckled effect. 



Young birds have the crown, back, and shoulders, black, each feather broadly 

 edged with buff": under parts plain buff. 



The females are a shade larger than the males, and sometimes, but not always, 

 more brightly coloured. The above descriptions from birds in my own collection, 

 procured in Northern Europe. 



