220 BULLETIN 142, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Plumages. — In natal clown the young dunlin is similar to the 

 young red-backed sandpiper, but is paler in color, more buffy, and 

 less rufous. The subsequent molts and plumages are similar to 

 those of our American bird. They are well described in Witherby's 

 (1920) Handbook. 



Food. — Macgillivray (1852) made some careful observations on the 

 feeding habits of dunlins, which are well worth quoting, as follows : 



Being in a muddy place, which probably afforded a good supply of food, they 

 did not run much, but yet moved quickly about, with their legs a little bent, 

 the body horizontal, the head a little declined, and the bill directed forward 

 toward the ground at an angle of about 45°. I observed that they seemed in 

 general merely to touch the surface, but also sometimes to introduce their bill 

 into the mud for about a fourth of its length ; but this was always with a 

 rapid tapping and somewhat wriggling movement, and not by thrusting it in 

 sedately. This flock having flown away, I observed another of about 12 indi- 

 viduals alight at a little distance on the other side of the mill stream. Being 

 very intent on tapping the mud, they allowed me to approach within 10 paces, 

 so that I could see them very distinctly. I examined the marks made by them 

 in the mud. Although it was soft, very few footmarks were left, but the 

 place was covered with numberless small holes made by their bills, and form- 

 ing little groups, as if made by the individual birds separately. Of these 

 impressions very many were mere hollows not much larger than those on a 

 thimble, and not a twelfth of an inch deep ; others scarcely perceptible, while 

 a few were larger, extending to a depth of two-twelfths ; and here and there 

 one or two to the depth of nearly half an inch. On scraping the mud, I could 

 perceive no worms or shells. It is thus clear that they search by gently tap- 

 ping, and it appears that they discover the object of their search rather by the 

 kind of resistance which it yields than by touch like that of the human skin. 



Witherby's (1920) Handbook says that the food is mainly animal 

 and includes mollusks, worms, crustaceans (shrimps and sandhop- 

 pers), insects (beetles, flies, etc.), and spiders. 



Behavior. — The habits of the European dunlin seem to be the 

 same as those of our bird. It is equally tame and confiding, unless 

 shot at too much, and it has the same habit of flying in large, closely 

 bunched flocks. John T. Nichols tells me that some that he saw 

 near Liverpool in September, " when on the ground, moved about 

 very actively for the most part (contrasted with the sluggishness 

 of the redback as we know it in migration) and presented a low, 

 hunch-shouldered figure." Abel Chapman (1924) says: 



On one occasion, on May 14, seeing three small waders floating on the mirror- 

 like surface of the tide and quite 200 yards offshore, we punted out to them 

 in full anticipation of having at last fallen in with phalaropes. Curiously, the 

 trio proved to be dunlins, a species I can not recall having seen contentedly 

 swimming in deep water on any other occasion. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Breeding range. — Northern Europe : Iceland, the Faroes, British 

 Isles, northern coasts of Germany, northern Russia east to Kolguev, 

 Spitzbergen, and probably Nova Zembla,. South to Holland and 



