DUNLIN. 373 



Crustacea, Mollusca and other marine animals, periodi- 

 cally exposed by the tide. Thus crowded together, the 

 birds present a fatal mark for the big swivel guns, 

 and an almost incredible number are sometimes killed at 

 a single discharge. Messrs. Gurney and Fisher, in the 

 concluding observations to their " Account of the Birds 

 found in Norfolk," state that upwards of eight hun- 

 dred dunlins were brought to a dealer in Yarmouth 

 on the llth of December, 1844 ; and on the 16th of the 

 same month some two hundred more, besides large 

 numbers of other water-birds. I have also known, much 

 more recently, as many as two hundred dunlins obtained 

 in the day by one individual. Should the frost continue 

 severe for any length of time or the "flats," as soon as 

 exposed by the ebbing tide, be covered with snow, 

 these poor birds become exceedingly pressed for food, 

 and are then brought into our markets in a very pitiable 

 state. At high water they betake themselves to the ad- 

 joining marshes, following the course of the Yare, Bure, 

 and Waveney, whose mingled waters pass through 

 Breydon to the sea, and on the former stream are met 

 with as far up as Eeedham ; but everywhere fresh perse- 

 cution awaits them from a swarm of gunners posted on 

 the banks. One of the surest indications of an unusually 

 severe season, such as that of 1860, is the appearance 

 of men in our streets, with large bunches of dunlins, 

 knots, and grey plovers, suspended from sticks, the 

 former being invariably palmed off as snipes upon the 

 unwary purchaser. Though, of course, far inferior to the 

 snipe, dunlins when in condition, are very good eating, 

 but it is essential that the trail should be removed as 

 soon after they are killed as possible, since the gall 

 bladder^in this species is largely developed and imparts 

 a bitter and extremely unpleasant flavour.* 



* In the L'Estrange "Household Book" this species, under 

 the name of " stynt," is frequently included amongst the shore-birds 



