THE DUNLINS. 



229 



especially distinct on the wing-coverts, the greater series tipped 

 with white so as to form a wing-band; primary-coverts and 

 quills dark brown, narrowly fringed with whitish and having 

 white shafts ; secondaries for the most part white, with a longi- 

 tudinal dusky mark towards the end of the outer web ; rump and 

 upper tail-coverts brown like the back, the sides of the rump and 

 the lateral tail-coverts pure white ; centre tail-feathers also dark 

 brown, the remainder light ashy-brown, fringed with white at 

 the ends and with white shafts ; head like the back, with tiny 

 dark centres to the feathers ; lores dusky-brown, surmounted 

 by an indistinct whitish eyebrow ; sides of face and ear-coverts 

 light brown, with darker shaft-streaks; cheeks, throat, and under 

 surface of body pure white, the lower throat and chest light 

 ashy, with darker centres to the feathers, more distinct on The 

 sides of the chest. 



Young Birds.— Above brown, with sandy-rufous edges to the 

 feathers ; under surface white, with scattered spots of dusky- 

 brown on the breast ; throat whitish ; fore-neck tinged with 

 sandy-buff. 



Eange in Great Britain— The present species, famiharly known 

 as the " Ox-bird," breeds in Scotland and the northern islands 

 and in the north of England as far south as Lancashire and 

 Yorkshire, and even in Lincolnshire, though it is nowhere so 

 common in the nesting season as it is in some parts of Scot- 

 land. It is also known to breed in Cornwall and Devonshire 

 where there are moors suited to its habits, but nothino- is 

 known of its nesting in any part of Wales. In Ireland ac- 

 cording to Mr. Ussher, the Dunlin breeds "in Hmited numbers 

 and ocally in Donegal, Londonderry, Westmeath, Wicklow' 

 Kings County, Mayo, and Sligo, and probably elsewhere in 

 the midland and northern counties/^ It is a very common 

 bird on all our coasts in winter, and is sometimes seen 01' 

 mland waters during migration. 



Range outside the British Islands.— The Dunlin may be con- 

 sidered a circum-polar bird as it nests throughout northern 

 Europe from Iceland and the Faeroes to Scandinavia and 

 thence across Northern Europe and Siberia to the Pacific It 

 also nests throughout Arctic America, though the birds from 

 the western side of the latter continent are usuallv rather larger 



