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LITTLE RINGED DOTTEREL.
LITTLE RING DOTTEREL. LITTLE RINGED 1*LOVER.
Charadrius minor, JENYNS. GOULD.
Charadnus— ? 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.
Onlv one specimen of this species, taken at Shorcham, 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 pair of
the same kind. Its ' l i t t l e life' was at once cut short in the land of
its birth—'O patria dolce; ingrala patria.' Another was subsequently
obtained from Scilly, in September, 1851, by J . li. Ellman, Esq., of
Lewes. In Yorkshire one, a male, was shot in a ploughed field
near Whixley, an inland place in the Wcst-rtiding, by Mr. James
Styan, on the 30th. of July, 1850. Five, as G. Grantham, Esq. has
informed me, were shot by him on the Kith, of February, 1855, between
Cuckmerc Haven and Seaford, on the coast of Sussex, and
he was informed that they are generally to be met there in the months
of March and April. In Devonshire, one at Scilly.
I t 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 arc
sociable in their habits, several broods being brought out in the
same locality, and they also intermingle with flocks of other birds.
They arc not shy, and may be approached pretty nearly. They are