510 



respecting locality), communicated to me by Captain H. W. Feilden, to whom. I may add, I am 

 indebted for most valuable assistance in collecting the materials for the present article. Mr. 

 Eobert Gray, writing respecting its occurrence in Scotland (B. of W. of Scotl. p. 254), draws 

 attention to the fact that on consulting the old parish records published towards the close of 

 the last century, most of the compilers had, to some extent, a personal knowledge of the bird in 

 Scotland. One author, writing in 1794, Mr. John Benton, of Chesterbank, records that in the 

 parish of Coldingham, Berwickshire, " Dotterel appear in vast numbers on tbe heights." 

 Various other writers in East Lothian, Fife, Kincardine, Perth, and Aberdeen shires likewise 

 refer to the migratory movements of this bird ; and all these records tend to show that it had 

 then been sufficiently common to attract attention. At the present day, however, though the 

 Dotterel may be said to be still regular in its visits to some of the localities just named, it is 

 absolutely necessary for observers to be careful in watching for its appearance. In some parts 

 of Berwickshire, for example, the flocks, besides being much reduced in numbers, never remain 

 longer than three days in their old haunts, which in the early part of the present century they 

 frequented during as many weeks. Indeed, in other parts of the same county it would almost 



seem to have discontinued its short visits In the western counties I have been quite unable 



to trace the occurrence of the Dotterel, except as a mere straggler Bearing in mind what 



has been said on the now comparative scarcity of this bird in its accustomed halting-places during 

 its migratory movements, it is not to be expected that the few breeding-localities from the 

 heights of Dumfries to Inverness-shire will be otherwise than scantily occupied. I am doubtful, 

 indeed, if more than a dozen pairs are to be found nesting in the whole of Scotland." The late 

 Dr. H. L. Saxby, in the 'Zoologist' for 1871, records this species as another addition to the 

 Shetland list. "About the middle of June 1869 I observed one among some Golden Plovers 

 upon the hill of Crushafiel, immediately above Balta Sound. Never having seen this species 

 alive, I got a neighbour to come out and shoot it for me. It proved to be an adult male." 

 Mr. Thompson, who thinks that it may possibly breed in Ireland, writes (B. of Ireland, ii. p. 93), 

 as follows: — "The earliest notice of the occurrence of the Dotterel in Ireland appeared in the 

 ' Zoological Proceedings' for 1834, where I mentioned one which had been shot on a high hill 

 at Finnebrogue, near Downpatrick, a few years previously (it was believed, in the month of 

 November). I saw the specimen in the house of Mr. Eeid, at Ballygowan Bridge, in the spring 

 of that year, and was told that two others were in company with it when killed. Mr. R. Davis, 

 jun., of Clonmel, has informed me that he obtained a Dotterel which was shot on the summit of 

 the high mountain, Shev-na-mon, about the 24th of June, 1835, in company with Golden 

 Plover. That gentleman himself ascended the mountain on the 18th of August, and saw at 

 some little distance two birds which he believed to be Dotterels : he imagined that the species 

 might be breeding there. He subsequently favoured me with the examination of the skin of 

 one shot in another locality, on the mountains in the 'Liberties of Clonmel' on the 24th of 

 August, 1840: it was in a state of moult, and had lost many feathers; but sufficient remained 

 to prove its being a male and at least one year old. On the 18th of August, 1841, two of these 

 birds, believed to be an old and a young one, were seen by my correspondent hanging in a cook's 

 shop in Clonmel. Although positive information could not be obtained respecting them, he had 

 little doubt of their having been shot near the town. The preceding information leads to the 



