226 BULLETIN" 142, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



within 5 feet of them. They were diligently probing in the sanely mud, wading 

 in water up to their bellies. At this depth it was necessary for them to im- 

 merse their heads entirely, and I could see them shut their eyes as they went 

 under water. Whether the eyes were afterwards opened or not I am unable to 

 say. When disturbed they flew but a short way, and if they happened to alight 

 in water too deep for their legs, they swam readily, as do all shore birds. 

 When disturbed the dunlin utters a short hub. Their call note is distinctive, 

 and resembles somewhat the word purre, by which name the European species 

 is called. The note is plaintive and sometimes melodious, and recalls, without 

 its harshness, the cry of the common tern. 



Behavior. — The earlier writers refer to this as an active, restless 

 bird. Audubon (1840) says: 



There seems to be a kind of impatience in this bird that prevents it from 

 remaining any length of time in the same place, and you may see it scarcely 

 alighted on a sand bar, fly off without any apparent reason to another, where 

 it settles, runs for a few moments, and again starts off on wing. 



Giraud (1844) writes: 



It is a restless active bird and gleans its food with great nimbleness, and 

 seems to be fond of continually changing its position. Soon after alighting 

 they collect together and make a short excursion over the water, again alight- 

 ing a short distance from where they had previously taken wing. During their 

 aerial excursions, when whirling about, they crowd so close together that 

 many are killed at a single shot. On one of these occasions Mr. Brasher in- 

 forms me that he killed 52 by discharging both barrels into a flock. This num- 

 ber is greater than I ever before heard of ; but from 10 to 15 is not unusual. 



Wilson (1832), writing when shore birds were abundant, says of 

 this nocking habit : 



These birds, in conjunction with several others, sometimes collect together 

 in such flocks, as to seem, at a distance, a large cloud of thick smoke, varying 

 in form and appearance every instant, while it performs its evolutions in air. 

 As this cloud descends and courses along the shores of the ocean, with great 

 rapidity, in a kind of waving, serpentine flight, alternately throwing its dark 

 and white plumage to the eye, it forms a very grand and interesting appear- 

 ance. At such times the gunners make prodigious slaughter among them ; 

 while, as the showers of their companions fall, the whole body often alight, or 

 descend to the surface with them, till the sportsman is completely satiated 

 with destruction. 



Suckley (1860) found them equally abundant in the Puget Sound 

 region, for he writes: 



Early in the season, before they have been rendered wild by being much 

 shot at, I have observed that upon a volley being fired into a flock the un- 

 harmed birds in terror sweep around in several circles, and hovering " tunclx," 

 as the sportsmen say, over their wounded companions, and sometimes realight 

 with them. At the moment of their hovering in a compact body over the 

 wounded is the time generally seized to fire the reserved barrels ; two or three 

 shots will frequently bring down from 30 to GO birds ; and I have known one 

 instance where an officer of the Army bagged 96 birds from one discharge of 

 his fowling piece. After being fired into once or twice the flocks, learning to 

 avoid sympathizing with their dead and wounded, become shy and wary. 



