104 
DOTTREL PLOVER. Crass II. 
barley fallows : from thence they remove north- 
ward to a place called Leyton Haws, and stay 
there about a fortnight ; but where they breed, 
or where they reside during winter, we have not 
been able to discover. ‘They are reckoned very 
foolish birds, so that a dull fellow is ‘prover- 
bially called a Dottrel. ‘They were also be- 
lieved to mimick the action of the fowler; to 
stretch out a wing when he stretched out an arm, 
&c. continuing their imitation, regardless of the 
net that was spreading for them. 
To this method of taking them, Michael 
Drayton alludes in his panegyrical verses on 
Coryate’s Crudities : 
Most worthy man with thee it is even thus, 
As men take Dottrels, so hast thou ta’en us 3 
Which as a man his arme or leg doth set, 
So this fond bird will likewise counterfeit. 
At present, sportsmen watch the arrival of 
the Dottrels, and shoot them; the other me- 
thod having been long disused. 
