HOODED DOTTEREL 83 
HOODED DOTTEREL 
Charadrius cucullatus cucullatus 
I DO not know a more charming little bird than this 
representative in Australia of the Ringed Plover of 
Europe. Scattered in pairs during the summer all 
along the ocean beach from Port Phillip Heads to 
Point Castries, near Lorne, you may see the plump 
little bodies on tiny twinkling feet racing down from 
above high-water mark where their nest is hidden, 
then hurrying along the hard beach at the water's 
edge in front of you, the cock bird conspicuous with 
black head and white collar, the hen suited in plainer 
grey. Follow them along the beach, and after a few 
hundred yards they will fly out to sea and behind 
you to their home again. 
The breeding-season is at its height in the month 
of November, but I have seen a young bird at Torquay 
on October 20th, and eggs at Airey's Inlet in January. 
Three eggs are usually laid, the site of the nest, 
which is a mere unlined or very scantily shell-lined 
depression in the sand, being a sandy ridge, often 
strewn with bits of dried kelp, above high-water mark. 
Sometimes, indeed, it is a hundred yards from the 
beach, up one of those miniature ravines which one 
finds running into the coast sandhills from the sea- 
ward side. I have on occasion found the nest by 
tracing the footprints of the birds. 
Winter is the only season which draws the Hooded 
