RINGED DOTTEREL. 
31 
It is very interesting to watch this pretty little bird chasing 
nimbly along the sands close to the water’s edge, avoiding 
the waves that may now and then wash higher up than the 
others, by deviating just as much as, and no more than is 
necessary from its course. It needs not the warning of the 
lesson taught by Canute to his courtiers, but follows the 
guidance of Nature, obedient to One, and One only, who hath 
‘placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual 
decree that it cannot pass it, and though fhe waves thereof 
toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, 
yet can they not pass over it;’—farther than that it turns 
not aside, instinctively knowing the truth of the Divine law 
given to the ocean, and which it must obey, ‘Hitherto shalt 
thou come, and no further, and here shall thy proud waves 
be stayed.’ Thus you may see it ‘running before the wind,’ 
as so well depicted by my friend, the Rev. R. P. Alington, in 
the figure from which the plate is taken, its light feathers 
blown up by the gust sweeping from behind, and hurrying 
by its side the bubbling foam left by the recoiling wave of 
the flowing or ebbing tide. 
The numbers of these birds in some parts are added to in 
the spring and autumn by migratory bodies, respectively 
proceeding north and south, and these partial migrations take 
place, it is said by night, and at a very high elevation; I 
have never had opportunity of seeing it. 
The Ringed Dotterel will on occasion make use of the 
same stratagems and manoeuvres that so many other kinds 
do to allure away intruders from the nest or young, uttering 
a twittering note of alarm and anxiety. ‘At first when 
leaving the nest, they skulk away from it before taking wing, 
which they are easily enabled to do from their inobtrusive 
colouring,’ ‘and if pursued will fly to a little distance, 
distend all its feathers, and seem to tumble over head and 
heels repeatedly, till it has enticed its enemy to a distance 
from its young, and then it flies off.’ When disturbed, they 
course usually in a semicircle over the sea, and, if allowed, 
return to the same spot or near it. They are good birds to 
eat, and are caught in nooses accordingly. 
They associate at times with other maritime species, though 
not on terms of very close intimacy. They are very hardy 
birds, and may easily be kept in confinement. They are fond 
of bathing, and Meyer says, sometimes saturate themselves 
so that they cannot easily take wing. 
