LIMICOL^. ( 246 ) SCOLOPACIDM. 



THE DUNLIN. 



PUREE, STINT, SEA SNIPE, PLOVER' S PAGE, SEA LARK, 

 RED-BACKED SANDPIPER, OX BIRD, OX EYE. 



Tringa alpina. 



The puet, godwit, sti?it, the palate that allure, 

 The miser and doe make a wastefule epicure. 



Drayton. 



The precipitous coasts of Berwickshire are not suitable for 

 the Dunlin, which loves sandy flats projecting into the sea 

 and the mud banks found at low water in the estuaries of 

 rivers, where it feeds in great flocks during autumn and 

 winter. Although most of the birds which compose these 

 flocks migrate in spring to the north of Europe to breed, 

 many betake themselves at that season to wild moorlands 

 in various parts of Scotland, where they rear their young. 

 After the nesting season is over, the birds which have bred 

 in this country are joined at the sea-shore by great flocks 

 which have returned from colder regions. 



Although there is no record of the nest of the Dunlin 

 having been found in Berwickshire, yet the presumption is 

 that the bird has bred on the moors about Longformacus, 

 for Colonel Brown has informed me that on the 16 th of 

 July 1885 he shot a Dunlin on swampy, mossy ground, 

 high up, near where the " Grey Mare " and the " Grey 

 Mare's Foal" (two detached boulders) lie on the moor. 

 The nest of this species is usually placed amongst short 

 heather, or under a tuft of grass, and is sometimes difticult 

 to find. The eggs, which are four in number, vary con- 

 siderably in colour — from pale green to pale buff, spotted 

 with two shades of reddish-brown. 



