74 BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



sounding when uttered by the female, and harsh 

 and low when by the male. Local and other names : 

 Mallard, Stock Duck, Common Wild Duck. - Sits 

 closely, and covers over her eggs when leaving her 

 nest voluntarily. 



DUNLIN. 



Description of Parent Birds. Length about eight 

 inches. Beak rather long, nearly straight, and 

 black. Irides brown. Crown and upper parts 

 reddish-brown, streaked on the head and back of 

 neck with dusky-black, and each feather on the 

 back being black in the centre. Wing-coverts 

 greyish-brown edged with light grey ; quills dusky- 

 black, inclining to brown on some of the lesser, 

 which are greyish-white on the edges of the outer 

 webs. Upper tail-coverts white, quills ashy-brown 

 edged with grey, excepting the two centre feathers, 

 which are longer than the rest and dusky-brown. 

 Chin white, cheeks, throat, and sides of neck and 

 breast whitish, streaked with dusky-black; belly 

 and under - parts white. Legs, toes, and claws 

 dusky-black, slightly tinted with green. 



The female differs little from the male, but is, 

 as a rule, slightly larger. 



Situation and Locality. On the ground, well 

 hidden by a tuft of ling, heather, or tussock of 

 coarse grass, in boggy, marshy, tarn-besprinkled 

 parts of moors and heaths in the north and ex- 

 treme west of England ; also in Scotland and Ire- 

 land. Our illustrations are from photographs taken 

 on the Westmoreland hills, between Shunner Fell 

 and Nine Standards. 



Materials. A few straws or bents forming a 



