128 WADING BIRDS. 



ing in form and appearance every instant while they perform 

 their circuitous, waving, and whirHng evolutions along the 

 shores with great rapidity ; alternately bringing their dark and 

 white plumage into view, they form a very grand and imposing 

 spectacle of the sublime instinct and power of Nature. At 

 such times, however, the keen gunner, without losing much 

 time in empty contemplation, makes prodigious slaughter in 

 the timid ranks of the Purres ; while as the showers of their 

 companions fall, the whole body often alight or descend to the 

 surface with them, until the greedy sportsman becomes satiated 

 with destruction. 



The Dunlins breed plentifully on the Arctic coasts of Amer- 

 ica, nesting on the ground in the herbage, laying three or four 

 very large eggs of an oil-green, marked with irregular spots of 

 liver-brown of different sizes and shades, confluent at the 

 larger end. Mr. Pennant also received the eggs of this kind 

 from Denmark, so that the range in which they breed, no less 

 than that in which they migrate, is very extensive. 



This species, still abundant throughout the continent, and breed- 

 ing in the Far North, is called "Winter Snipe" by the gunners of 

 New Jersey and southward ; but that name is given by the New 

 Englanders to the Purple Sandpiper, which is not seen farther 

 south. The names Ox-bird and Purre, given to the present spe- 

 cies by Nuttall, were the names by which the summer and winter 

 phases of the Dunlin were designated formerly by English writers. 

 Mr. D. G. Elliot tells us that in the far north, when the pairing 

 time arrives, " the males pursue the females, uttering a musical 

 trilling note which falls upon the ear like the mellow tinkle of large 

 water drops falling rapidly into a partly filled vessel. It is not 

 loud, but has a rich full tone difficult to describe, but pleasant to 

 hear among the discordant notes of the various water fowl, whose 

 hoarse cries arise on all sides." 



Note. — The European Dunlin {Tringa alpina) is smaller 

 than the American race, and of a duller tint. It occurs in Green- 

 land and breeds there, and an occasional example wanders to the 

 •shores of Hudson Bay. One has been taken on Long Island. 



