An Imitative Bird . 
26 
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ago, when crossing one of our Lancashire moors, in company with an 
intelligent old man, we were suddenly startled by the whistling over¬ 
head of a covey of plovers. My companion remarked that, when a boy, 
the old people considered such a circumstance a bad omen, “ as the 
person who heard the wandering Jews,” as he called the plovers, “ was 
sure to be overtaken with some ill-luck.” ’ ” 
Closely allied to the plover is “ 
foolish peck ” (Skelton, BoJce of 
Sparow ):— 
the Dotterel 1, that 
Philip 
Dotterel. 
“ which being a hind of bird as it were of an apish kind, ready to 
imitate what they see done, are caught according to foulers ges¬ 
ture : if he put forth an arme, they also stretch out a wing: sets he 
forward his legge, or holdeth up his head, they likewise doe theirs; in 
briefe, whatever the fouler doth, the same also doth this foolish bird 
untill it be hidden within the net.” ( Camden , on Lincolnshire.) 
There is a passage in Drayton’s Polyolbion, so similar 
to the above as to suggest plagiarism on the part of one 
author:— 
“ The dotterel, which we think a very dainty dish, 
Whose taking makes such sport, as man no more can wish ; 
For as you creep, or cowr, or lie, or stoop, or go, 
So marking you with care the apish bird doth go, 
And acting everything, doth never mark the net, 
Till he be in the snare, which men for him have set.” 
( Polyolbion , song xxv.) 
Ben Jonson writes:— 
“ Bid him put off his hopes of straw, and leave 
To spread his nets in view thus. Though they take 
Master Fitzdottrel, I am no such foul, 
Nor, fair one, tell him, will be had with stalking.” 
(The Devil is an Ass, ii. 1.) 
The Oyster-catcher, or Sea-pye, was apparently an 
abundant species. Leigh, in his Natural 0yster _ 
History of Lancashire , writes: “ The sea- catcher, 
pyes are very common, they are birds of the colour and 
about the size of a magpie, and are a very agreeable 
food ” (p. 163). That this was the prevailing opinion is 
