358 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



of any specimens killed either at that season or in winter in 

 recent years. The Newcastle Museum contains two Dotterels 

 in nest feather, shot on Crossfell in the year 1843. One of 

 them is stated to have been killed on the 25th of August, the 

 other on the 1st of September. 



Hancock asked T. C. Heysham, some sixty years ago, whether 

 he had ever known the Dotterel to occur in Lakeland in winter. 

 So far as I have been able to discover, the only Dotterel that 

 any competent authority has identified, shot in England in 

 winter, is the bird mentioned in the last lines that the late Mr. 

 Gatcombe ever penned for the Zoologist, an immature specimen 

 killed on Dartmoor, and purchased in the Plymouth Market on 

 the 12th of December 1886. 



GOLDEN PLOVER 



Charadrius pluvialis, L. 



Although the wet ' flows ' which exist in the neighbourhood 

 of the English Solway are singularly well adapted to the breeding 

 habits of this Plover, only one or two pairs seem to nest on any 

 portion of their area. James Smith found a clutch of the 

 Golden Plover's eggs on a moor near the coast in 1889. The 

 eggs chipped on the 11th of May, and three chicks hatched out 

 on the 13th of that month. When I saw them on the following 

 day they were in perfect health, and really beautiful little birds. 

 Their fresh down looked so bright that they appeared to have 

 been sprinkled with gold dust. Notwithstanding their extreme 

 youth they ran actively about the room, snapping eagerly at 

 midges and other small insects. The loud, clear call-notes of 

 these chicks bore a pretty near resemblance to that of the 

 adult. A few pairs of Golden Plovers nest sporadically upon a 

 good many of our higher moorlands. It is surprising how 

 early the Golden Plovers, bred on our hills, descend to the 

 estuaries. In 1889 Dr. Meikle noticed a large flock on the 

 Solway on July 7, and Mr. Cairns reported many present at 

 Gretna a week later. In 1888, as early as July, I observed 

 a great flock of Golden Plovers, numbering not less than 500 

 birds, in a bean-field near Floriston, in company with a few 



