224 BIRDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



May 9th a Jack Snipe get up within two yards of him, 

 and fly away across the lake, ahghting on the further 

 bank. 



GENUS TEINGA. 



DUNLIN. 



Tringa alpina, Linnteus. 



Local Names — Purre, Sea-mouse. 



From the sand-banks and mud-flats of the Duddon to 

 those of the Mersey, the DunHn is by far the commonest 

 of the winter shore-birds, and frequents by thousands 

 the whole of the coast-line at that season. Not many 

 of these stay to nest in the county, but although the 

 mosses, &c., near the coast are almost entirely deserted 

 now, yet on the higher hills many broods are reared each 

 year. Li the Ma//, of Nat, Hist, for 1834, Mr. Henry 

 Berry, referring to Bewick's account of the Purre, says 

 that on Martin Mere he has shot the female with eggs 

 fully matured, and found several nests from which he 

 had driven the old birds, and Mr. E. J. Howard tells me 

 that John Cookson, an old wildfowler, has often taken 

 the nest in the same place. On other of the coast 

 mosses it has also bred many times, though never very 

 plentifully, and the Report of the Bunj Nat. Hist. Soe., 

 1871, states that it has been known to do so on Chat 

 Moss, near Manchester. According to the Mss. notes 

 of the late Eev. J. D. Banister, it bred on the hills 

 at the head of Wyresdale, some thirty years ago, and R. 

 Leyland, of Halifax, says {Mag. Nat. Hist., 1828) that it 

 " breeds on Blackstone Edge." It is still found nesting 

 on the more northern parts of the latter range of moors. 



