162 
CHAKADRIID^: 
THE DOTTEEEL. 
Charadrius morinel lus. 
Although the Dotterel has long been known as an occasional 
visitor to Orkney, it was only added to the Shetland list in 
1870, in which year, about the middle of June, I observed 
one, a male, upon the hill of Crushafiel, immediately above 
Balta Sound. Xever having previously seen this species alive, 
I got a neighbour to come out and shoot it for me.* 
It appears to be generally known that the female is the 
brighter coloured bird of the two. 
THE EIXGED PLOVER 
Clmradrius hioiicula. 
SAXDY-LOO — SAXDY-LAVEROCK. 
In no part of the British Islands does the Einged Plover breed 
more plentifully than in Shetland; and although it never 
occurs there in the enormous flocks so attractive to the shore- 
shooter elsewhere, yet, being dispersed regularly upon every 
coast, the total number of birds must be very great. It does 
not seem to migrate; nor does the number undergo any sudden 
increase or diminution, as in the case of the Golden Plover. In 
autumn, flocks of moderate size collect, composed of the various 
families belonging to certain districts, and they keep together 
more or less until early in spring, when they separate, pair, 
and breed; yet what becomes of the “surplus pojmlation” of 
the preceding year is no small mystery. For the last eight- 
teen years I have not observed the least alteration in the number 
of birds in any district with which I am well acquainted. At 
any time in the winter I might visit some little sandy beach 
where years ago I saw perhaps a score, perhaps half a hundred 
* The author had in the previous autumn met with the painful accident from 
the effects of which he never rightly recovered, his horse falling with him at a 
stone wall, causing a most severe compound fracture of the arm. — E d. 
