292 CHARADRIID Aa 
which falls pleasantly on the ear of the listener. A startled 
Dunlin, as it rises, gives forth a prolonged plaintive single 
note like quééze or whééze. 
This species is easily tamed and at the proper season 
will assume the nuptial plumage (Newton, ‘ Dictionary of 
Birds,’ p. 172). 
Nest.—In spring the greater numbers of British-breeding 
Dunlins quit the sea- -coast, resorting to marshy grounds and 
moor-lands, in both flat and mountainous districts. Indeed 
this species frequently resorts to considerable elevations 
above the sea-level. I have found the bird breeding along 
the shores of inland lakes, notably on Lough Sheelin, co. 
Cavan. In 1901, Dr. EK. Blake Knox discovered several 
pairs nesting on the shores of one of the Westmeath lakes : 
the nests were built in very short grass and at some twenty 
paces from the lake shore (‘ Irish Naturalist,’ 1901, p. 147). 
Mr. Campbell found nests in rather similar situations, 2.e., 
in short grass on the slob-lands at Inch, Lough Swilly 
(‘Irish Naturalist,’ S01 pli). According to Mr. Ussher’s 
observations the nest ‘‘is made in long coarse grass, some- 
times beside lakes and rivers in the heart of the country, as 
in Westmeath ; sometimes by the coast, in marshes adjoin- 
ing the sand-hills or on reclaimed slob-lands, as in Donegal. 
It has been found by Mr. Ellison on the top of the Wicklow 
mountains, 1,700 feet above the sea, where the moor was 
covered with moss, stunted heather and patches of cotton- 
grass, and studded with small ponds of peaty water. This 
nest was a tiny cup-shaped hollow, without cover, in a patch 
of grey moss, surrounded with a few wiry bents and scraps 
of heather, and neatly lined with shreds of lichen, and a few 
scraps of heather and dry bents. In low lands the tussock 
of coarse grass in which the nest is placed usually over- 
hangs the eggs, and the cup is comfortably lined with dry 
crass, but a small isolated bank in a northern lake con- 
tained two nests of Redshanks, one of Common Sandpiper 
and one of Dunlin among the green grass which was not 
long enough to cover the eggs” (‘ Birds of Ireland,’ p. 284). 
The eggs, four in number, are pear-shaped, and prettily 
marked with blotches and large specks of rich reddish- 
brown, on a light greenish-grey ground-colour. Incubation 
begins early in June, and the young are affectionately cared 
for by the parents; the latter will tumble and drag them- 
selves with outspread tail and wings in front of an intruder 
to decoy him from their hiding chicks. When incubation 
