GRALLATORES. CHARADRIIDÆ.
T H E DOTTEREL.
Charadrius morinellus, DottrehP.lover, P enn. Brit. .ZooI.'voîKü, p. 103,
Tlie Dottrel, Mouïv1 ûrnith.Dict,'
The Dotterel', B ewick, Brit. Mrcls, v.ol.. i. p. 378.
The Dottrels Flem. Brit. An. p. 113? *;
Thé Dotterel, - Seley, Brit. Ornith. v<?fc ü. p. S3&
Dotterel Plover, .jENYNs,'Brit. Vert. p,.178~
Thé Dottrell, G ould, Birds of Europe, pt.„iï. -
Pluvier guignard, Temm. Man. d’Ornith. vol «• p.537.
The Dotterel is a summer visiter only, to this country,
making its appearance in the south-eastern-counties of Enc-
land towards the Cndof April, and does not seem to go in
any numbers far to the westward. Mr. Thompson says it is
a rare visitant to Ireland; it has not been seen, moré than
once or twice in Cornwall, and only occasionally in Devonshire
and Dorsetshire. In Wiltshire, Berkshire, Hertfordshire,
Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, and Norfolk, small flocks, or
trips as they are called, of Dotterel are seen in the spring on
theirJ way to their brèedmg-ground, which, in many instances,
is yery far north, and those''or others are again seen in the
autumn on their-return, their numbers then reinforced by the
addition of the young birds of the year. On th e ,chalk hills
about Roys,ton on the borders' of Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire,
these' birds ihave been observèd'for many years
to-make their first appearance in -each season by the 20th of
'April-; . they are- >seëh : for- about* ten days, some probably
moving oh^fo thp-aiorthward, and their placés being supplied
for a timê by other arrivals frank* thè/Émth. They are found
.generally bn the- fallows, or newly ploughed lands near the
. edgeS'of the «id owns, or sheep walks, Where they appear to feed
<#n worms, slugs, insècts, and their larvæ. From these counties;
the birds pass on to niotb northern localities; and ,are
-seen in Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire,
WestmorelandV Cumberland,-Northumberland, and various
- parts of Scotland, always inhabiting high ground. They are
generally seen in these northern districts in May. Dr. Beck
of Copenhagen-told'me that the Dotterel* pass the islands at
the mouth of the Baltic about, the 1st of June, and disperse
oyer Scandinavia. Professor Nilsson mentions their annual
visit to Sweden: Mr. Hewitson saw some on the ploughed
fields of Norway : Linnæus says they are frequent in Dale-
carlia and the Lapland Alps ; and they are known to go as
high as the sixty-seventh degree of north latitude. They are
said to breed also in Russia, Siberia, and Northern Asia.
The best account of the habits of this species at its breeding
ground, has been supplied by T. C. Heysham, Esq. of
„Carlisle, from which the following is an extract :—
“ I will now narrate,” says this gentleman, u as succinctly
as possible, what has fallen under my own. observation relative