AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 9 



S.W. Lancashire, but I have not heard of any 

 having been seen on my own property there since 

 1883, or between that year and 1862 ; but in 1886, 

 on writing to thank one of my Lancashire neighbour's 

 gamekeepers for sending me some Peewit's eggs, I 

 asked him if he ever saw any Dotterels now-a-days, 

 and he replied by return of post, sending me five 

 beautiful specimens of this bird, with a note saying 

 that they were the first he had met with for 

 many years *. My feelings on receiving these birds 

 were rather mixed, as although the Dotterels are 

 very properly protected by law in May, and it is 

 certainly a great pity to destroy them on their way 

 to their breeding-quarters, it does not answer to 

 look a gift-horse in the mouth ; I had not asked for 

 the birds, and was not sorry to have such perfect 

 specimens for my collection, to say nothing of their 

 excellence from a culinary point of view at all seasons. 



I found this species in great abundance on the 

 plains near Tunis in the late autumn of 1856, con- 

 sorting with Sand-Grouse, Peewits, Golden Plovers, 

 Little Bustards, and Cranes, and shot a good many 

 from horse, donkey, and camel ; on foot I found it 

 impossible to get within shot, unless I had the luck 

 to fall in with the Dotterels away from any of the 

 above-named associates, although I have frequently 

 seen them and the Golden Plovers running fearlessly 

 about within a few feet of the Arab ploughmen. 



The only Dotterel that I ever kept in captivity was 

 a young bird purchased in Leadenhall Market in the 

 autumn of 1885 ; he seemed naturally very tame and 



* I have, since the above was written, been assured of several 

 occurrences of the present species in the locality to which I here 

 refer. 



