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DOTTEEEL. 



DOTTEREL PLOVER. DOTTREL. 



Charadrius morineUus, .... Linn-sus. 



Pluvier guignard, ..... Tejimtnck. 



Charadrius. From Charadra — A furrow or chasm, from its frequenting such places. MorineUus. 



Diminutive from Moraino — To act foolishly. 



The Dotterel, coming to this country merely for the purpose of incubation, is only 

 seen during the spring and summer months, leaving us again in the autumn; and as it 

 breeds nowhere except in Scotland and the extreme north of England, it can only be looked 

 upon as a passing visitor in the more southern counties. It is more plentiful in the eastern 

 than in the western counties; thus we find it in spring and autumn passing through 

 Berkshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Wiltshire in small flocks; 

 while in Dorsetshire, Devon, and Cornwall, they only occur, and very rarely, as isolated 

 individuals, which have probably been driven out of their proper course by heavy gales 

 of wind. It is however reported to breed occasionally on the high range of the Mendip 

 Hills in Somersetshire. Passing on to the north we find it in the shires of Lincoln, Derby, 

 and York; and breeding in Lancashire, Westmorland, and Cumberland. In Scotland it 

 is only a passing visitor in the lowlands, but breeds on many of the lofty hills in that 

 alpine country. Mr. C. St. John, speaking of Sutherlandshire, says it is rare, but that 

 it breeds on Cleebrick: he also mentions the singular fact that although on any given 

 hill you may find thousands of the Golden Plover breeding, you will only find one pair 

 of Dotterels. In Ireland the Dotterel is very rarely met with. Mr. Thompson records 

 several instances of its occurrence, only one of which was during its spring migration ; one 

 however occurred near Clonmell on Sliev-na-mon mountain on the 24th. of June, 1835, 

 and was shot by Mr. R. Davis, Jun., of Clonmell, in company with Golden Plovers. The 

 others occurred in August or September. 



Having succeeded in rearing their young, they pass to the southward during the month 

 of September, and are again seen in most of the places which they visited in the spring, 

 before they finally leave our shores for their winter retreat : where they betake themselves 



