172 DUNLIRD—DUNLIN 
DUNBIRD, DUNCUR or DUNKER, names of the PocHarp. 
DUNLIN, the common name of the commonest of shore-birds, 
the Tringa alpina and T. cinclus of Linnzeus, who, not knowing the 
great seasonal change of plumage it undergoes, took examples in 
their summer dress to be specifically distinct from those in that 
which it wears in winter—an error, long shared by many writers, 
which Montagu in 1813 (Orn. Dict. Appendix) was perhaps the 
first to suspect, though it could hardly be said to have been dis- 
pelled until Temminck in 1815 (Man. @Orn., pp. 395-398) boldly 
united them, calling the species 7. varialilis.! In its breeding-attire 
the Dunlin is a beautiful bird, of a rich reddish-orange above, each 
feather having a dark brown median stripe, with a broad black 
gorget contrasting with the white of the lower plumage. In this 
condition it is generally known to professional gunners as the 
Purrz or STINT, though the last name is by authors restricted to 
two or three smaller species. ‘The Dunlin breeds sparingly on the 
higher hills of the western, midland, and northern counties of 
England, and far more abundantly and at lower levels in Scotland, 
as well as on the continent from Holland northwards. The ordin- 
ary form of Dunlin from the New World has been described 
as distinct under the name of 7. americana, and examples of it are 
constantly larger than those of Europe, though there is no other 
difference between them. A smaller form of Dunlin, by some 
writers accounted a species, the 7. schinzi of Brehm,” also occurs 
not very rarely on our coasts, and generally in flocks by itself. It 
is said to breed on the Cimbric peninsula, but nothing is known of 
the limits of its range, and at present it cannot be deemed with 
certainty to be even a local race. In the pairing-season the cock 
Dunlin, like most of his allies, exercises himself in peculiar flights, 
and in the course of them utters a singular whistle, which sounds 
like the for-a-time continuous ringing of a small bell with a shrill 
note, and notwithstanding its high pitch is pleasing to the ear. 
The nest is a simple depression in the ground, to some extent 
furnished or enclosed by grass, leaves, or the like, as incubation 
proceeds ; and therein are laid four eggs, generally of great beauty, 
with varied spots or blotches, but presenting so many differences 
that description of them is here impossible. Towards winter Dun- 
lins flock in thousands to our shores, especially those which are 
fringed by extensive mud-flats, and are thus exposed to much per- 
secution on the part of fowlers, both by the gun and the net. In 
an aviary they bear confinement well, and at the proper season will 
assume their nuptial plumage. 
1 This was already a synonym of 7’. alpina, for in 1810 Bernhard Meyer had 
so applied it (Zaschenb. deutsch. Végel, ii. p. 397). 
2 Not to be confounded with the 7’. schinzt of Bonaparte, now known as 7. 
bonapartii, a North-American species belonging to a different group of the genus 
