DUNLIN. 373 
Crustacea, Mollusca and other marine animals, periodi- 
cally exposed by the tide. Thus crowded together, the 
birds present a fatal mark for the big swivel guns, 
and an almost incredible number are sometimes killed at 
a single discharge. Messrs. Gurney and Fisher, in the 
concluding observations to their “ Account of the Birds 
found in Norfolk,” state that upwards of eight hun- 
dred dunlins were brought to a dealer in Yarmouth 
on the 11th of December, 1844; and on the 16th of the 
same month some two hundred more, besides large 
numbers of other water-birds. I have also known, much 
more recently, as many as two hundred dunlins obtained 
in the day by one individual. Should the frost continue 
- severe for any length of time or the “flats,” as soon as 
exposed by the ebbing tide, be covered with snow, 
these poor birds become exceedingly pressed for food, 
and are then brought into our markets in a very pitiable 
state. At high water they betake themselves to the ad- 
joining marshes, following the course of the Yare, Bure, 
and Waveney, whose mingled waters pass through 
Breydon to the sea, and on the former stream are met 
with as far up as Reedham; but everywhere fresh perse- 
cution awaits them from a swarm of gunners posted on 
the banks. One of the surest indications of an unusually 
severe season, such as that of 1860, is the appearance 
of men in our streets, with large bunches of dunlins, 
knots, and grey plovers, suspended from sticks, the 
former being invariably palmed off as snipes upon the 
unwary purchaser. Though, of course, far inferior to the 
snipe, dunlins when in condition, are very good eating, 
but it is essential that the trail should be removed as 
soon after they are killed as possible, since the gall 
bladder in this species is largely developed and imparts 
a bitter and extremely unpleasant flavour.* 
* In the L’Estrange “Household Book” this species, under 
the name of “ stynt,” is frequently included amongst the shore-birds 
