DUNLIN 



I 2 



tinge on the under surface, which is spotted with black on the 

 breast. 



AlthouL,di the dunlin of Eastern Siberia and America, on account 

 of its somewhat larger size, has been regarded as a distinct species, 

 it seems preferable to consider such small differences as of racial 

 rather than specific value, and the present bird may accordingly be 

 considered as one of the comparatively few members of the group 

 having a circumpolar breeding-range, which in Europe extends as far 

 south as Scandinavia and the British Islands. The winter-range in 

 the Old World includes the Mediterranean countries and a large part 

 of southern Asia. In the British Islands the species may be said to 

 breed in such localities as are suited to its habits where the tempera- 

 ture is not too high. It is found, for instance, nesting on the open 

 moorlands of Cornwall and Devon, then again in those of Lancashire 

 and Yorkshire, and more sparingly in Lincolnshire, and thus onwards 

 through the other northern counties of England and Scotland, where 

 it is locally very abundant, and the Isles. In the sister island it nests 

 in limited numbers in parts of Leinster, Connaught, and Ulster, and 

 on the coasts from autumn to spring is the most abundant of all the 

 wading-birds. From the last statement it will be evident that the 

 numbers of the dunlins resident in the British Islands are largely 

 reinforced in winter by migrants from the north ; and it may indeed 

 well be that many of the resident British birds take a southern trip 

 for the winter. 



Except during the early part of the breeding-season, the dunlin, as 

 already mentioned, is essentially a bird of the shore, where it may 

 often be seen on the mud-flats, accompanied or not, as the case may 

 be, by knots and other waders, in flocks of immense size. The feeding- 

 time of these flocks is the ebb-tide, when the flats of mud and sand 

 are laid bare, and it is then that these birds may be seen carefully 

 hunting in and round every little pool for food, which comprises at 

 this time of year shrimps, small crabs, shell-fish, marine worms, etc., 

 although when the birds are on the moors for breeding the nutriment 

 is, of course, entirely different in character. When the tide is in flood 

 dunlin resort to the beach, from which they will now and then, especially 

 if disturbed, take a short flight seawards, although most of the time is 

 passed in dressing their feathers and sleeping in the characteristic 

 wader-pose, that is to say, on one leg, with the beak snugly tucked 

 beneath the wing. Although a number of immature birds may 

 remain together all the summer, the flocks of dunlin break up into 

 pairs before the departure to the breeding-grounds. Well concealed in 



