The reverend dotterel-catcher

In May and June dotterel came to the Gog Magog Hills near Cambridge, where fowlers caught them in nets by imitating their call on a whistle, for the bird was said to be so fond of mimicry that it let itself be walked up to. A Cambridge correspondent sent Hone the local tradition that James I loved to watch them taken when he stayed at Newmarket. A poor clergyman of Sawston who was expert at it was promised a living by the king, and when he was forgotten at court he made the same signs he used in dotterel catching until the king cried out that here was his reverend dotterel-catcher, and gave him the living.