Family CHARADRIID^E. 



THE DOTTEREL. 



Endromias morinellus (Linnaeus). 

 Plate 62. 



A summer visitor to Great Britain, this beautiful Plover usually reaches the 

 southern and eastern parts of England and Southern Scotland about the end of 

 April or beginning of May, when small parties or "trips" may be seen on the open 

 downs and fallows as they make their way to their breeding stations on the northern 

 hills. 



Though now very rare, the Dotterel has long been known to nest on the hills 

 of the Lake District, but its chief breeding haunts in the British Islands are the 

 mountains of the Scottish Highlands, where in summer at high elevations it nests 

 among the mists of the Grampians and in a few other favourable localities. This 

 species occasionally visits Ireland on passage, chiefly in the autumn months. 



It breeds in Scandinavia and as far north as Novaya Zemlya, and, according to 

 Howard Saunders' Manual, " on the highlands of Transylvania, Styria, and 

 Bohemia," whilst it also ranges in summer to Northern Asia. In winter it migrates 

 to North Africa, Turkestan, and Persia. 



The nest, consisting of nothing more than a slight hollow in the moss-covered 

 ground, contains three eggs, of a pale greyish-buff colour, blotched and spotted with 

 blackish-brown. The food consists of grasshoppers, beetles, and other insects, as 

 well as of worms and grubs. 



The Dotterel, which in its habits has much in common with the Golden Plover, 

 is, however, much less wary than that bird, and will usually allow a close approach. 

 Macgillivray thus describes a flock he came across in the parish of Towie, Aberdeen- 

 shire, in September : " Not having been molested, the birds merely ran along before 

 us as we approached them. Several, on being first roused, stretched up their wings, 

 as is customary with all birds of this group, and moved about in a lifeless sort of 

 way, seeming to entertain little apprehension of danger. On being urged, they rose 

 on wing, but presently alighted in the neighbourhood. It is this insensibility to 

 danger which has procured for them the names of Dotterels and Morinelli, or little 

 fools. It has been alleged, too, that by stupidly looking on, and imitating the 



iv. 9 B 



