THE DUNLIN 



EROLIA ALPINA 



GiLLE-FEADAIG, POLLARAN, TAUMACnAN-TRAGHAD (Gaelic) ; BECASSEAU 



VARIABLE (French) ; Alpen trandlauper (German) ; Pestrosoborg 

 PESSOTCHNIK (Russian). Local names: — Dunlin Sandpiper, Sea 

 Snipe, Least Snipe, Purke. 



To many the Dunlin is known during the months of winter, 

 but through the long days of the year, when the birds 

 seek the high moorlands for the purpose of rearing their 

 young, they merge into obscurity. Then they are seen 

 only by the hill-shepherd, or the stalker moving round 

 the tops in search, maybe, of a deer calf, or, again, of a 

 fox's den. They have little experience of man and his 

 ways, these mountain birds, and thus they show a degree 

 of confidence which is often quite noteworthy, and posses- 

 sing great charm for one whose aim is to study wild 

 nature at close quarters. 



The Dunlin which nest on our Scottish hills are of a 

 different race to those which one sees during the months 

 of winter haunting the estuaries of so many of our rivers. 

 They retire south of these Islands at the approach of cold 

 weather, and it is not until May that they reach their 

 mountain haunts, arriving long after the Greenshank has 

 made its appearance, and having, perhaps, the Dotterel 

 as their companions on their northward flight. 



During the month of May one sees, too, parties of 

 Dunlin still frequenting the coast-line, though they have 

 by now assumed their handsome wedding dress, but these 

 small people press on northward ; they are waiting for the 

 melting of the snows in the countries of the High North, 

 where it is not until June that the grip of winter slackens. 



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