DUNLIN. 379 
passing to and fro along the ranks, perhaps acting as 
aides-de-camp to this great feathered army. 
I have no reason to suppose that the dunlin ever 
remains to breed in Norfolk, even though Mr. Lubbock 
in his “ Fauna” (speaking of “the stint or oxbird of 
our beach ”’), says (p. 117), “ some breed as far inland 
as the warrens about Swaffham and Thetford.” This 
remark, however, as Mr. Lubbock has recently informed 
me, was founded entirely upon notes supplied him by the 
late Mr. J. D. Salmon, with reference to the habits of 
the ringed-plover and the occasional appearance of the 
dunlin in summer, about Thetford. Had Mr. Salmon 
actually found the latter breeding in that neighbourhood 
I am quite sure that so interesting a fact would have 
been communicated with his other valuable contribu- 
tions to the “ Magazine of Natural History,” but neither 
in that journal nor yet in his MS. diary of Ornitho- 
logical events,* during his residence at Thetford, is 
there a single entry leading to such a conclusion. Mr. 
Alfred Newton, also, who, living close to Thetford 
Warren for a good many years, had unusual facilities 
for observing the species breeding there, assures me 
that the dunlin never did so to his knowledge, or to 
that of the warreners, but that a stray bird would occa- 
sionally make its appearance there in the month of 
May. Thus on the 24th of May, 1850, a male bird, 
recognised as such by its flight and note, was seen by 
his brother on Thetford Warren, but it could not be 
found again though search was made on subsequent 
days; and again on the 19th of May, 1851, a female 
was shot on the warren. In 1853, during the flood 
which devastated the south-west’ corner of the county, 
* For the perusal of these carefully-kept notes, now in his 
possession, I am indebted to my friend Mr. H. Buckley, of 
Edgbaston, Birmingham. 
3c 2 
