252 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds 



has never known them breed there. I need not add that they are 

 considered great luxuries for the table. 



Cursorius Isabellinus. " Cream-coloured Courser." This bird 

 also has once been recorded as having occurred in Wiltshire : and 

 that also in the very same district that the Pratincole was shot in. 

 One was killed by Mr. W. Langton, of Wandsworth, when out 

 shooting near Tilshead. This bird lay so close that his dog nearly 

 chopped it, and after settling again, some two hundred yards off he 

 shot it as it was running along the ground. The bird was shot on 

 October 2nd, 1855, as also recorded by the Rev. A. C. Smith. 



Charadrius Morinellus. " Dotterel." At one time this pretty 

 and sprightly bird was by no means uncommon on our downs, but 

 they are not now-a-days often seen. Mr. At t water, of this parish, 

 tells me he used to meet with them frequently some years ago ; and 

 not long ago put up a single bird once or twice in the parish. But 

 on enquiring of a friend of his for me, whose farm lay in a district 

 which they used to frequent, he wrote thus : — " My friend tells me 

 they occasionally get Dotterel on the Plain, both at the barley sowing 

 time and in the barley harvest, which would be in March and 

 September, but not so regularly or in such numbers of late years. 

 This agrees with what others have told me." In 1854 Mr. Hart's 

 brother killed five out of a pack of fourteen, in summer plumage, 

 near Christchurch. In 1873 a female Dotterel was killed out of a 

 flock of three, at Stockton, by Mr. Brown Gifford, in the spring 

 months. Another immature specimen was killed on a piece of fallow 

 at Fonthill, by Mr. Coombs, October 1st, 1876; and Mr. Baker, 

 tells me " On two or three occasions I have seen Dotterel on Mere 

 Down. On March 7th, 1881, I shot at one at a long range, but 

 failed to bag it." And in the month of April or May, about 1868, 

 being on horseback, he rode quite close — within ten or fifteen yards 

 — to three birds of this species that were running before him up a 

 furrow, and seemed scarcely to notice his presence. I had two 

 specimens given me from Jersey not long ago, but they are im- 

 mature and not' in good plumage. 



Charadrius Hiaticula. " Ringed Dotterel." Not uncommon on 

 pur coasts in the South of England, and generally distributed. I 



