DUNLIN. 59 
than when on the wing. They frequently give a scream on 
first taking flight. 
The nest is usually located under the shelter of some tuft or 
small bush in any dry spot, on marshy moors and _ heaths, 
mosses or salt marshes, as well as by the sea. It is often 
concealed, intentionally or unintentionally, with great success, 
so as to be very difficult to find. Sometimes, however, it is 
fashioned upon the open grass which grows green and verdant 
here and there among the dark heather, ‘lonely, lonesome, cool, 
and green.’ A few bits of moss, withered heath, or grass, form 
its careless lining, if there be any in it, the same materials 
being for the most part merely rounded into form—a natural 
cradle. 
The eggs are four in number, of a greenish white, greenish 
grey, or dull green colour, blotted and spotted with a darker 
and a lighter shade of brown, most so towards and at the 
larger end. Some have the ground a light blue inclining to 
dull white, others a clear light green, richly spotted with hight 
brown. ‘They are deposited in the nest with the smaller ends 
inwards. . 
The young leave the nest as soon as hatched, and hide 
themselves in the most recondite manner. 
Male; weight, very variable, from nine drachms to eleven, 
and from that to an ounce and a half; length, about eight 
inches, but the size appears variable as well as the piumage, 
sometimes being half an inch less, or even, according to Sir 
William Jardine, an inch and a half or two inches. ‘The bill, 
slightly inclined at the tip, is black, in winter not so dark; 
and between it and the eye is an indistinct brown streak. Iris, 
brown, or dusky; over it is a streak of white. Head on the 
sides, streaked with light brown and grey; on the crown, a 
mixture of black and ferruginous, or reddish orange, in winter 
grey, the centre of each feather a little darker and the edge 
a little lighter; the feathers of the neck and nape, on their 
centres, streaked with black, the edges clear reddish brown, 
in winter greyish, and the edges still more so. Chin, white; 
throat, greyish white streaked with black, in winter paler; 
breast in summer, greyish white, spotted most on the upper 
part and sides with black and dusky, and in the centre 
brownish black, each feather narrowly tipped with white, 
forming a broken fringe, which extends across to the sides; 
Montagu mentions a specimen in which the whole of the 
breast was nearly black—others have more or less closely 
