DUNLIN. 609 



daughter, in 1526, at Chevet, near Wakefield, are " five dozen 

 Stints, gd." George Allan referred to these birds as being 

 " formerly a great dish at our tables " (Fox's " Synopsis 

 of the Tunstall Museum," 1791, p. 86), which is quite apparent 

 from the price of " Wildfowl at Hull " in 1560, when " Stintes" 

 are quoted at 4d. a dozen. 



The first British description of the bird occurs in a com- 

 munication from Ralph Johnson of Brignall, near Greta 

 Bridge, to Willughby, thus : — 



" It is about the bigness of the Jack Snipe or Judcock, 

 hath a straight, channell'd, black Bill, a little broader at the 

 end, oblong nostrils ; a blackish tongue. The Throat and 

 Breast white, spotted with black. The middle of the Belly 

 is blackish, varied with white lines. The Lower Belly, and 

 feathers under the Tail white. All the upper side is red, 

 ever3^where spotted with pretty great black spots with a little 

 white. Yet the wings from a grey incline to a brown or dusky 

 colour. The Legs and Feet are of a competent length and 

 black. The back-toe the shortest. The Tail consists of 

 twelve feathers of which the two middlemost are dusky 

 [" brown "] with one or two red spots. The rest from brown 

 incline to white. It gets its food out of the mud." (Will. 

 " Orn." 1678, p. 305.) 



Thomas Allis, 1844, wrote : — 



Tringa variabilis. — The Dunlin — J. Heppenstall informs me it is 

 found on Thome Moor in summer ; R. Leyland says it breeds on the 

 High Moors, round Halifax ; H. Reid reports it as very rare near 

 Doncaster, and that one specimen was killed at Bradsworth in the 

 spring of this year; it is common at Hebden Bridge, and not infrequently 

 to be seen in considerable numbers during winter in the shops in York. 

 A. Strickland says considerable flocks, in various stages of plumage, 

 are frequently met with on the sea shore about Bridlington in the 

 autumn and winter, and that it is about the most abundant species 

 on the shore ; he says they must breed in considerable numbers in 

 some part of the county, but he does not know where, and that a few 

 pair used to breed, many years ago, in Stockton Forest, near York, 

 where he has taken both their eggs and young. 



In addition to being the most numerous and familiar of 

 our Sandpipers, the Dunlin is known in some parts of Yorkshire 



