DUNLIN. 5 



within arm's length, ' purring ' the while in their peculiar fashion, that 

 one imagines the nest must be close at hand. Then after lying patiently- 

 watching them, for perhaps half an hour, up goes the Dunlin with a little wild 

 pipe, and flies right out of sight. I have seen them year after year in spots 

 where they certainly do not breed, perform all their presumptively breeding 

 antics, as though gratuitously to deceive one. It will thus be seen that though, 

 in the aggregate, a good many Dunlins nest on the Border moors, yet being 

 scattered widely about in single pairs, they are easily overlooked." 



Speaking of the breeding of this species on the Solway Marshes, 

 Mr. Chapman further Avrites * : — " Both the species just mentioned [Redshank 

 and Dunlin] breed in some numbers on the great marshes of the Solway, and may 

 there be much more readily studied than on the highlands of Northumberland. 

 These marshes are of great extent — for many miles a dead flat, grassy expanse, 

 hardly raised above sea-level, and intersected by muddy channels and creeks of 

 salt water — a very diff'erent region to that frequented by the Dunlins on the 

 moors 



" They [Dunlins] build a slight nest, like a Skylark's, but there is little 

 attempt at concealment. They usually run from their eggs on being disturbed, 

 and as they have perhaps gone several yards before being perceived, one is apt to 

 be deceived in not finding any nest at the spot where the old birds, by their 

 actions, lead one to expect it." 



Mr. J. H. Salter, who discovered the Dunlin breeding in Wales, writes f : — 

 " As the Dunlin, Tringa alpina, is known to nest in Cornwall and Devon, it is a 

 little remarkable that the fact of its breeding in Wales has not hitherto been 

 satisfactorily established. I found it last summer [1892] frequenting a large 

 heather-grown peat bog in Cardiganshire, some twelve miles from the sea. When 

 at the same locality this year [1893], on May 13th, a small wader rose, with the 

 Dunlin's weak note, and, shuffling along to attract attention, showed the black 

 breast and chestnut mantle of that bird. The four eggs were typical Dunlin's 

 eggs, smaller than those of the Snipe, and with greener ground colour. Another 

 pair, on May 24th, evidently had young ones hidden amongst the rushes, and 

 must have bred in the neighbouring peat-mosses." 



Through Mr. Salter's kindness I am enabled to figure one of the eggs above 

 referred to. (Figure 4.) 



Another instance of the Dunlin breeding in Wales is recorded by Mr. H. S. 



* Op. cit. pp. 39, 40. 



t ' Zoologist,' 1893, p. 269. 



