By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 



51 



the greyish white which prevails on all the under plumage, a glossy 

 black now appears, while bright golden yellow tips the edges of 

 the upper feathers, and the contrast of dark below and light above, 

 is extremely pleasing. Its flesh is very highly esteemed by epicures, 

 and therefore it is diligently sought for by the fowler, but thanks 

 to its innate shyness, it is not very easily approached, except during 

 a fog. I have found the nest of this species in Norway in the 

 very middle of a footpath, in the mountains of that scantily popu- 

 lated country, aud the four eggs which are now in my cabinet were 

 on the point of hatching in that ill selected spot. Its call-note 

 during the breeding season is the most mournful melancholy sound 

 which I know, and condemned as we were to listen to it during a 

 whole night, while crouching over a smouldering fire of wet wood 

 in a goat-house, when overtaken by a sudden snow storm in the 

 higher mountains of Norwa}' in July, we felt quite provoked at its 

 plaintive monotonous cry, however congenial with the circumstances 

 by which we were surrounded, and in unison with our feelings on 

 that somewhat uncomfortable occasion. 



" Dotterell." (Charadrius morinellus.) This too, is, or perhaps 

 I ought to say was a thoroughly Wiltshire bird, our county being 

 one of the few enumerated by Yarrell as its regular haunts. At 

 the beginning of this century, Colonel Montagu described it 

 as a bird which annually visits us in spring and autumn in its 

 migratory flights to and from its breeding places in northern 

 Europe : and he adds, " on the Wiltshire downs it resorts to the 

 new sown corn or fallow ground for the sake of worms, its principal 

 food : in the autumn they fly in families of five or six, which we 

 have observed to be the two old birds and their young : but some- 

 times a dozen or more flock together." They generally rested but 

 a few days amongst us, but during that period they were often so 

 numerous that sportsmen now alive have killed from forty to fifty. 

 Now they are rarely to be met with, and though scarcely a year 

 passes without a notice of the capture of one or more on some 

 portion of our downs, it is but an accidental straggler, which has 

 wandered out of its way. Our good friend, Rev. W. C. Lukis, 

 chanced to see such an one, as he was driving with the Rector of 



