352 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



I was informed had been found here, but we only saw the bird 

 as it was wheeling round us in the fog.' 



In May 1832 Heysham applied for assistance to John 

 Robinson of Stone House, Dent, who states in his reply : 1 1 am 

 afraid it will be out of my power to procure you a nest with 

 eggs. There is some dispute whether they breed or not. Some 

 are of opinion they do, others the contrary. I have never yet 

 met with anybody who had found a nest. I called a few days 

 ago on a man who partly makes it his business to look after 

 them. He informed me that lately he shot a bird Dotterel, 

 which, on opening, he found contained an egg, which puts the 

 matter out of dispute. He informs me that for the last four 

 years the bird has become more plentiful, which is to be 

 wondered at, considering that immediately upon its being ascer- 

 tained that they have arrived, every one that can raise a gun is 

 after them. . . . About the 1 5th or 1 6th of last month a flock 

 of nine or ten arrived. . . . One of our men shot two of them.' 

 Heysham wrote to J. D. Drummond on the 1 3th of July this 

 year : ' During the late cold and backward spring very few 

 Dotterel were seen in the vicinity (on their way to the moun- 

 tains), and the only specimen I obtained was too much injured 

 to set up. It is a young one.' The specimen in question appears 

 to have been sent to Mr. Drummond with a Ruff and other birds. 



In a letter received by Heysham on the 29th of August 1832, 

 Mr. Robinson writes that he forwards two Dotterel shot on 

 Woofel the previous day, with this comment : ' I have been 

 repeatedly on the mountains during the summer, but could 

 never meet with any. I think there is little doubt that they 

 leave us in the spring and return again in September, and 

 remain a little while with us, prior to leaving our island for the 

 winter. I would suppose that they are male and female, or a 

 young and an old bird. I am sorry one of them is hurt in the 

 plumage round the neck. You will see by the map of York- 

 shire that Woofel is very high land.' The number of Dotterel 

 visiting Lakeland must always have varied seasonally. 



In 1833 the birds appear to have been more scarce than 

 usual, because Heysham informed Doubleday on the 2 2d of 

 June : ' Not a single Dotterel to my knowledge has been pro- 



