52 
unintentionally with great success. The eggs, which always 
number four (I have never found more), are deposited in the nest 
smaller end inwards. The female sits very assiduously, allowing a 
person to come quite close to her before leaving the nest, which 
she does in a fluttering and hesitating manner. Their flight is 
very rapid ; and it is very beautiful to see them stretching away in 
flocks, at one time scarcely discernible on account of the distance 
and their dull backs, but at the next moment glancing into light 
as they turn their lower surface to the view. The note of the 
Dunlin is feeble, but continually repeated. The female, like most 
Sandpipers, is considerably larger than the male. That I think is 
the only difference between them. This bird seems to me to be 
in a continual state of moult. As the breeding season draws to a 
close, the feathers on the breast—of which their terminal part is 
black—are substituted by others having a much smaller portion of 
their extremity of that colour, In September the grey feathers, 
characteristic of the winter plumage, appear here and there, and 
by degrees the whole is renewed. I have examined the marks 
left by these birds after feeding in the sand, and the place was 
covered by numberless small holes made by their bills. Some of 
these were mere hollows, not more than one-twelfth of an inch 
deep, while the deepest were nearly half an inch. On scraping 
away the sand I could find no worms or shells; going to another 
place, I found the sand marked in the same way, and here and 
there a much deeper and wider hole, accompanied by numerous 
scratchings. I think it is thus clear that they search for their food 
by gently tapping ; and it appears they discover the object of their 
search by the kind of resistance which it gives, and then insert 
their bills deeper to find it. Mr. George Dawson has in his collec- 
tion at Bellevue a Buff-breasted Sandpiper ( Z: rufescens ), which 
was shot by his brother on Burgh Marsh, in September, 1876. 
(8.107 -C,, D: 153-) 
The Curlew (Z: a@rguata) is well known on our marshes in 
winter.* It is an extremely shy bird, and very difficult to approach 
within shot. I have found the Curlew nesting on a piece of waste 
* Many frequent the marsh in August, probably birds bred on mosses 
adjacent to the Solway.—M. 
