PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 423 



across the tundras of Asiatic Russia, but the East Asiatic and North American 

 form has been separated, and some writers maintain that two forms exist in Europe. 

 In winter it ranges to the Mediterranean region and North Africa, on the west to 

 the Canaries, and on the east through the Red Sea south to Zanzibar and Mozam- 

 bique, as well as in India ; while the eastern form ranges to South-east Asia, and 

 in America to California and the West Indies. [F. c. B. j.] 



3. Migration. A summer visitor to the inland breeding-haunts, but found 

 all the year round on the coast, where immature birds are to be met with in the 

 summer months. To what extent the British summer birds are resident or emi- 

 gratory cannot be said, for the species is also a winter visitor and a bird of passage 

 to our coasts from the countries of Northern Europe. August and September, and 

 April and May, are the months of the principal movements. Dunlins caught and 

 marked in the early autumn at Rossitten, at the south-eastern corner of the Baltic 

 Sea, have provided some interesting information concerning their subsequent 

 movements. As these movements affect our area, we may summarise the 

 results here : a couple of records mark out the route westwards along the south 

 coast of the Baltic, and this is extended by records from Essex (note), from the 

 Gironde estuary, and from the neighbourhood of the Rhone delta (cf. Thienemann, 

 Journal fur Ornithologie, 1910, p. 638). A gregarious migrant, often found in 

 huge flocks ; it also associates with ringed-plovers, knots, curlew-sandpipers, etc. 

 A nocturnal traveller, which frequently strikes against the lighthouse lanterns 

 (cf. Nelson, B. of Yorks., 1907, p. 611). [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. The nest is a neat little cup of dead bents and grasses, 

 concealed in a tussock of grass or among coarse pasture, heather, etc. The share 

 of the parents in building seems not to be recorded. In some cases it is found in 

 low marshes, little above the sea-level, and in others at considerable heights among 

 mountain ranges. (PI. LV.) The eggs are normally 4 in number, sometimes only 3, 

 pyriform, and placed with converging points. The ground-colour is rather variable, 

 and ranges from yellowish grey to pale greenish and sometimes light olivaceous, 

 in some cases very boldly blotched and spotted, but in others finely and closely 

 spotted with varying shades of sienna or sepia-brown and underlying ashy shell- 

 marks. It is not uncommon to find markings which show a rotatory movement 

 in the oviduct, and as a rule the heaviest markings are at the large end. (PL M.) 

 Average size of 61 eggs, 1*34 x -95 in. [34 '0 x 24'2 mm.]. Incubation is performed by 

 both sexes (H. H. Slater), and from results in an incubator the egg hatches early on 

 the 22nd day : in the case of a watched nest it lasted at least 21 days (W. Evans). 



