354 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



Heysham wrote concerning the same specimens to Doubleday in 

 a letter of January 25, 1836 : ' A few weeks ago I sent to your 

 friend Mr. Yarrell (for inspection) a case containing three 

 Dottrels, one of which was only a week or ten days old, for the 

 purpose of convincing the ornithologists in the South of England 

 that the bird does actually breed in the North of England.' 



That the Dotterel nested among the mountains of Lakeland 

 was now fully ascertained. It remained to be proved that this 

 Plover on some rare occasions nested upon the higher moors of 

 the Pennine range. The late B. Greenwell wrote to Heysham 

 from Alston on the 29th of November 1841 : 'I also got on the 

 7 th of June a nest of 3 Dotterel eggs. They were found by a 

 shepherd near Crossfell.' Greenwell wrote again on the 2d of 

 December : ' Sir, — I hasten with pleasure to forward a specimen 

 of the Dotterel egg for your inspection, but owing to a previous 

 engagement with Mr. Hancock of Newcastle I sent the other two 

 down to him. This being the only one I have left, I do not 

 feel inclined to dispose of it.' Some further information was 

 supplied to Heysham in a subsequent letter from Greenwell, 

 dated January 9, 1842 : ' Sir, — In answer to yours of the 4th 

 of Deer, last respecting the other two Dotterel eggs, they were 

 exactly like the one I sent you in colour and size. They were 

 found on dry ground about two miles from the top of Crossfell on 

 a place called by the shepherds Dun dedge, near Mallerby Scar. 

 There were a great many Dotterels seen and shot, I understand, 

 by persons that were in search of them for fishing feathers.' 



Mr. J. W. Harris sent a young Dotterel to Heysham in 1842, 

 regarding which he says, in a letter dated the 17th of November 

 of that year : ' The young Dotterel was caught by Mr. Benson on 

 Red Pike on the 12th Aug., after he had shot the mother. It 

 could then fly about 3 yards. They are not common here, but 

 are occasionally met with on the Buttermere fells.' The number 

 of eggs which completes a clutch of the Dotterel is believed to 

 be invariably three. Yarrell wrote to Heysham on September 9, 

 1845 : 'In July I heard of one Dotterel nest with four eggs in 

 it having been taken on Saddleback.' Heysham replied two days 

 later: 'During the last few years great attention has been paid by 

 the Dealers at Keswick and the neighbourhood in looking after the 



