DUNLIN. 383 
time giving utterance to a plaintive cry, a cry which I 
have often thought (but I may be mistaken) differs from 
that used by the shore dunlins. Two birds shot on 
the 16th of May, showed scarcely any sign of the sum- 
mer dress. All our shore dunlins, and I have inspected 
scores through my glass, were then in full summer 
plumage. Unlike the shore dunlins, which are per- 
petually on the move, and ever on the alert, these may 
be seen standing for long periods on one leg close to 
the water’s edge, the other leg dangling loose from 
the body, and the head thrown back between the 
shoulders. I believe a pair or two may be found in this 
district throughout the summer.” Of a specimen 
picked up dead on the 4th of June, he writes, “ this 
bird is in full summer plumage or nearly so, but the 
black pectoral patch is much broken up with white. It 
was too far gone for preservation.” Mr. Cordeaux has 
also examined, under the microscope the respective 
parasites of the “drain” and “shore” dunlins, which 
certainly, as shown by a coloured drawing sent to me, 
are widely different. 
As with the godwits, sanderlings, and other waders, 
examples of this species differ much in the date of their 
assumption or loss of the breeding plumage, birds killed 
on the same day, either in spring or autumn, often 
exhibiting every stage of transition from winter to 
summer plumage or vice versa. As a rule the sex of 
the common dunlins, may be determined by the bill, that 
of the female being almost invariably the longest, my 
own experience in this respect, from the dissection of a 
good number of specimens agreeing entirely with Mr. 
Jefferies’ statement in the “Zoologist” for 1867 (p. 813) ; 
but, as I have already shown to be the case with the bar- 
tailed godwits, exceptions may be met with which would 
altogether mislead the collector who relied on external 
evidences only. In four females of the larger race now 
