184 CHARADRIID.E. 



fifteen or sixteen days, the young come forth., and run 

 about as soon as they are dry ; they find their safety 

 on the approach of danger, by lying flat on the ground. 



The Merlin seems peculiarly fond of the Ring DottereFs 

 young brood, and may frequently be seen to haunt the 

 breeding-places of this species. The manner in which the 

 Ring Dotterel, as well as several other species, are to be 

 caught on the sandy sea-shore, is by means of a stick, of 

 about three feet long and an inch in diameter ; to this stick 

 several horse-hair nooses are^ fastened, and the stick being 

 pressed flat in the sand, it becomes invisible, leaving the 

 horse-hairs only exposed. This mode is often practised, and 

 repays the trouble well, as the flesh of the bird is very 

 good for food. 



The Ring Dotterel measures seven inches and a half in 

 length, its beak seven lines and a half; the wing, from the 

 carpus to the tip, five inches ; the tarsus eleven lines and a 

 half. 



The back and nape of the head, and all the upper parts 

 are cinereous-brown, and the remainder of the plumage 

 white, with the following black markings ; over the eyes a 

 broad black band runs across the head, another extends 

 from the forehead and whole width of the upper mandible 

 below the eyes, over the cheeks and ear-coverts, and meets 

 at the nape ; the white from the throat surrounds the nape 

 below the black just described, and is entirely bounded by 

 the black that covers the upper part and sides of the breast, 

 and encircles the neck at its base. The quills are dusky, 

 the secondaries shew the white upon each of the quills 

 about their middle ; the greater wing-coverts are tipped with 

 white, thus forming a white bar across the wing ; the tail 

 has the middle tail-feathers uni-coloured like the back, 

 but darker at their ends ; the next are tipped with white, 



