THE SHARP-TAILED DOTTERELS. 
15s 
naturalists have found the nest in Banffshire. Colonel Feilden 
describes the ways of the female bird at her nest. They are 
very similar to those of the Grey Plover, and, as long as he was 
near the nest, the bird flew from place to place around him, 
but when he had gone farther off she “ alighted on a hummock, 
looked round, ran along the narrow paths for some distance, 
when she again mounted a hummock to make further observa- 
tions, and, after passing backwards and forwards in a similar 
manner, finally stood still at the nest, and settled down on the 
eggs ” She allowed him to approach very closely before leaving 
them, when she fluttered off, as if wounded, remaining at no 
great distance, constantly uttering her plaintive note. 
Heat.— None, the eggs being deposited in a hollow in the 
mossy ground. 
Eggs. — Three in number. Ground-colour greyish stone- 
colour or light clay-brown, with a tinge of olive or greenish on 
some eggs. The spots and blotches, most of which are con- 
fluent, are mainly collected at the larger end of the eggs. In 
the m’idst of the black markings a reddish shade is often seen, 
but the underlying spots of purplish-grey are scarcely per- 
ceptible. Axis, r 5 S-i 7 inches; diam., ri. 
THE SHARP-TAILED DOTTERELS. GENUS OXYECHUS. 
Oxyechus, Reichenb. Av. Syst. Nat. p. xviii. (1852). 
Type, 0. vociferus (Linn.). 
The members of this genus differ from the other Dotterels 
in having a very long and wedge-shaped tail, which is more 
than half the length of the wings. There are four species of 
OxyechusVncmn, one of them being the well-known “Kill-deer’ 
Dotterel of North America, while the other three, 0. iricoUaris, 
O. bifro7ttatu5, and O.forbesi, are all African. 
1. THE KILL-DEER DOTTEREL. OXYECHUS VOCIFERUS. 
Charadrius vociferus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 253 (1766); See- 
bohm, Brit. B. iii. p. 28, pi. 26 (1885). 
yEdalitis vocifei-a, B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 120 (1883) ; Saun- 
ders, ed. Yarr. Brit. B. iv. p. 266 (1883) ; id. Man. Brit. B. 
p. 529 (1889) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xxv. (1893), 
Oxyechus vociferus, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit.Mus. xxiv.p. 242 (1896). 
