BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT 281 



The Peep is naturally tame and confiding. Where it is 

 undisturbed, it pays little attention to man. Along the shores 

 and in the marshes it runs about among the larger shore birds 

 and Ducks, and they seem to tolerate the little ones and 

 seldom disturb them. This species seems to prefer the salt 

 marsh, the mud flat and the shallow muddy shores of ponds 

 and rivers to the sea beach; hence the name Mud-peep. It 

 is by no means confined to the mud, however, but is also not 

 uncommon on the sands. It is fond of poking about among 

 masses of eelgrass and seaweed cast upon the strand by the 

 waves. Here it finds sand fleas, flies and many other small 

 forms of life on which it feeds. It is a great insect eater, par- 

 ticularly in the interior, where its flocks sometimes devour 

 great quantities of grasshoppers and locusts. 



DUNLIN {Pelidna alpina alpina). 



Adult. — A little smaller than the Red-backed Sandpiper; resembling it 

 almost exactly in coloration but a little duller; bill shorter. For de- 

 scription of the Red-backed Sandpiper see next page. 



Range. — Eastern hemisphere. Winters south to North Africa, India, etc.; 

 accidental in eastern North America, District of Columbia, Long Island, 

 New York, and Massachusetts. 



History. 

 The Dunlin is an accidental wanderer here from the Old 

 World. Mr. Charles J. Paine, Jr., reported the capture of a 

 female taken at Chatham, Mass., August 11, 1900, by Mr. 

 J. S. Cochrane. It is now in the Brewster collection at Cam- 

 bridge. This is the only record for Massachusetts.^ Mr. 

 Curtis C. Young of Brooklyn secured a specimen, September 

 15, 189^2, at Shinnecock Bay, Long Island, N. Y. This speci- 

 men was identified by Mr. F. M. Chapman, of the American 

 Museum of Natural History.^ 



1 Howe, Reginald Heber, and Allen, Glover M.: Birdaof Massachusetts, 1902, p. 41. 



2 Auk, 1893, p. 78. 



