190 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



DUNLING. Trimga alpina, Linnffius. PI. 21, figs. 10, 

 11. Length, 8 in.; bill, 1-3 to 15 in.; wing, 45 in.; 

 tarsus, 1 in. 



In altering the usually accepted mode of spell- 

 ing the English name of this bird, I have ventured 

 to restore what I conceive to be the older, and 

 therefore preferable, form of the word. " Dunling," 

 the little dun thing, a diminutive akin to grayling, 

 gravelling (a young salmon), groundling (an old 

 name for the gudgeon), brandling (a small red 

 worm), titling, reedling, sanderling, devilling (a local 

 name for the swift), duckling, and gosling. My 

 justification for the proposed change is to be found 

 in the entries relating to this Sandpiper in the 

 Durham Household Book (the accounts of the 

 Bursar of the Monastery of Durham), 1530-1534, 

 the price paid for them at that date being at the 

 rate of 4d. a dozen (Zool., 1881, p. 444). 



The Dunling, variously known as Stint, Purre, 

 Ox-bird, and Plover's page, may be found on some 

 parts of our coast all the year round, but in spring 

 and autumn a regular migration takes place to and 

 from its breeding haunts, which are usually at some 

 elevation on moorland wastes, often at a considerable 

 distance from the sea. 



This bird breeds annually in Scotland and the 

 Hebrides, as also on the Northumbrian moors, 

 whence I have procured the eggs. It used for- 

 merly to nest at Martin Mere, in Lancashire {Mag. 

 Nat. Hist., vol. vii. p. 599), and in Cheshire, where, 



