508 



and inner secondaries faintly glossed with green ; quills dark greyish brown, the shaft of the first 

 primary white, secondaries rather paler, some of the short ones margined with white ; tail dark greyish 

 brown, darker towards the tip, all except the two central feathers tipped with white, the lateral more 

 extensively and having also the outer web margined with white ; chin and upper throat white ; ear- 

 coverts and lower neck all round pale greyish brown; at the junction of the neck and breast is a 

 transverse white band, narrowly edged above with black; fore part of the breast and flanks rich 

 yellowish red ; lower breast and upper portion of the abdomen deep black ; lower abdomen and under 

 tail-coverts yellowish white; under wing- coverts dull greyish : bill blackish; iris brown; legs brownish 

 green, toes blackish grey, heel orange, claws black. Total length about 9-95 inches, culmen 085, 

 wing 60, tail 2"85, tarsus l - 5. 



Adult Male. Resembles the female, but is not quite so richly coloured, and, if any thing, is a trifle less in 

 size. I have, however, seen males scarcely distinguishable from females in richness of coloration, 

 though, as a rule, the latter are much the brighter-plumaged of the two sexes. 



Adult Male in winter (Palestine, 2nd February) . Crown and nape whitish, washed with rusty yellow and 

 closely streaked with blackish; the white streak over the eye and to the nape smaller than in the 

 summer dress, and washed with yellowish ; upper parts as in the summer, but paler, and more marked 

 with fulvous yellow ; tail and wings paler and duller than in the summer dress ; chin white ; throat and 

 sides of the head whitish, streaked with dull greyish brown; breast dull smoky grey, marked with 

 yellowish buff; rest of the underparts dull white, on the flanks washed with grey, and on the under 

 tail-coverts with yellowish buff. 



Nestling, one day old (Kautokeino, Lapland) . Covered with close short down ; head and neck white, washed 

 here and there with rufescent ochre ; centre of the crown black, slightly variegated with pale rufous ; 

 from the centre of the bill to the crown a black line ; from the lores to the eye a black line, and one 

 below and behind the eye passing round the back of the head ; upper parts variegated black, rufescent 

 ochre, and white ; underparts, white on the breast slightly washed with rufous buff. 



The range of this Plover does not extend beyond the Palsearctic Region during the summer 

 season ; but in the winter it migrates southward to North Africa. 



In Great Britain, where it used to be by no means a rare species, it is now becoming 

 exceedingly scarce ; and unless legislation, which has already saved many species from impending 

 extinction, by means of the Bird-protection Act, soon interferes, it will, ere long, be an almost 

 unknown bird with us. It is rarer on the western side of England than it is on our east coasts 

 during the two seasons of passage. Mr. E. Hearle Rodd says (Zool. 2nd ser. p. 1423), " the 

 common Dotterel seldom makes its appearance in Cornwall; we find them sometimes on our 

 open moors near the sea, and generally in the autumn. I observed two in the bird-stuffer's 

 hands, which came from the Lizard district near Helston ;" and, again, in his list of the birds of 

 Cornwall, he states that one was killed in Sancreed. Yarrell (Brit. Birds, ii. p. 485) says that 

 " it has not been seen more than once or twice in Cornwall, and only occasionally in Devonshire, 

 but oftener in Dorsetshire. In Wiltshire, Berkshire, Sussex, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, 

 Suffolk, and Norfolk, small flocks, or trips as they are called, are seen in the spring on their way 

 to their breeding-grounds On the chalk-hills about Royston, on the borders of Hertford- 

 shire and Cambridgeshire, these birds have been observed for many years to make their first 



