35 
LITTLE RINGED DOTTEREL. 
LITTLE BING DOTTEELL. LITTLE BINGED PLQYEE, 
Charadrius minor , Jenyns. Gotjld. 
Charadrius .. ? Minor — Lesser. 
On the continent this bird occurs commonly in various parts 
-—Germany, France, Italy, and Sweden. It has also been 
found in Asia, in Persia, in Japan, and the Philippine Islands; 
as also, Meyer says, in Africa, in Nubia and Abyssinia. 
But one specimen of this species, taken at Shoreham, in 
Sussex, had for some time occurred in this country, but as it 
was a very young bird, it had no doubt been hatched here by 
a parent bird of the same kind. Its ‘little life’ was at once 
cut short in the land of its birth— £ 0 patria dolce; ingrata 
patria.’ Another was subsequently obtained from Scilly, in 
September, 1851, by J. B. Ellman, Esq., of Lewes. In 
Yorkshire one, a male, was shot in a ploughed field near Whixley, 
an inland place in the West-Riding, by Mr. James Sty an, 
on the 30th. of July, 1850. 
It occasionally frequents the tide-way of the sea beach, but for 
the most part gives a preference to sand-banks, and islands in 
rivers, as also at times sandy places at some little distance 
from them. 
These birds migrate in the spring and autumn, about March, 
or rather April, and August or September. They travel in 
small parties of from five to ten, and invariably during the 
night. They are sociable in their habits, several broods being 
brought out in the same locality, and they also intermingle 
with flocks of other birds. They are not shy, and may be 
approached pretty nearly. They are easily kept in confine¬ 
ment for a certain time, and become very tame and amusing. 
