36 
LITTLE RINGED DOTTEREL. 
They feed on small worms, flies, beetles, and small aquatic 
and other insects in their various stages, and this chiefly in 
the mornings and evenings, and part of the night, wading 
in search of them in the shallows. They roost during the day, 
either standing by the water side or crouching down. 
The note is a plaintive whistle, and they frequently utter 
it in the spring: as they keep flying; about. Meyer expresses 
it by ‘dut,’ ‘dit,’ or ‘dea.’ 
The sand is its nest. 
The eggs are of a pale yellowish stone-colour, with numerous 
small spots of bluish ash, reddish brown, and dark brown. 
The young are hatched in sixteen or seventeen days, and at 
once begin to run about, hiding themselves instinctively with 
much cleverness if endangered. 
Male; length, not quite seven inches; bill, slender and black; 
iris, brown; the eyelids, dark yellowish; forehead, white, over 
it a black patch as far as the eye; crown, back of the head, and 
neck on the back, greyish brown; nape, white; chin and throat, 
white, extending from the latter round the nape; breast, white, 
with a patch of black on its upper part; back, ash-colour or 
greyish brown. 
The wings have the first quill feather the longest, the second 
nearly as long; greater and lesser wing coverts, greyish brown; 
primaries and secondaries, dusky brown, edged with white, and 
the first quill feather with a broad white shaft; tertiaries, 
greyish brown. Tail, greyish brown at the base, darker towards 
the end; the five outer feathers white on the ends, each 
gradually more so; the outer feather on each side white, with 
a large blackish spot on the inner web; upper tail coverts, 
greyish brown; under tail coverts, white. Legs and toes, slender, 
pale yellowish red; claws, black. 
The female has the bands of white and black on the forehead 
narrower and less distinctly defined than in the male. The 
feathers of the back and wing coverts have buff-coloured margins; 
legs, pale reddish yellow; the joints grey. 
The young are without the decided black markings; the 
white also is less pure. 
