THE DUNLINS. 227 



which is so generally spread over the recently thawed land, 

 that the Broad-billed Sandpiper has its eggs, and this is just 

 before midsummer, about the third week in June. Many 

 empty nests are found for one which is occupied, and I 

 suppose them to be of former years, for the moss in which 

 they are usually worked long retains any mark made in it, 

 being hard frozen for more than half the year ; they are neatly- 

 rounded hollows, and have a few bits of dried grass at the 

 bottom. The bird sometimes flies, and sometimes runs, off 

 her eggs ; and if she has sat for a day or two, she will come 

 back even while men are standing round." 



Eggs. Four in number, and very dark in appearance, the 

 ground-colour appearing pinkish-brown, very thickly mottled 

 and spotted with dark chocolate-brown, generally almost hiding 

 the ground-colour itself. In a pale type of egg the ground- 

 colour is stone-grey or olive-clay colour, the spotting being 

 very minute, and sometimes accompanied by a cluster of 

 blotches at the larger end of the egg. The underlying spots, 

 which are often prominent, are of a violet-grey. Axis, i' 2-1-4. 

 inch; diam., 



THE DUNLINS. GENUS PELIDNA. 



Pelidna^ Cuvier, Regne. Anim. i. p. 490 (1817). 



Type, P. alpina (Linn.). 



The Dunlins have the culmen longer than the tarsus, but 

 they may be distinguished from the Snipes and Wood-cocks by 

 the position of the eye, which is placed much more forward in 

 the head and does not approach the level of the opening of the 

 ear. The bill is slender and straight at the tip, and is not 

 curved downwards ; there is a slight tendency to broadening at 

 the end, so that the genus Pelidna holds an intermediate posi- 

 tion between Limicola and Ancylochilns. The Dunlins, more- 

 over, differ from the genus Tringa in having the middle tail- 

 feathers prolonged and sharpened at the ends ; the inner 

 secondaries also are very long, and so nearly equal to the 

 primaries in length, that the difference between these two sets 

 of quills is less than the length of the tarsus. 



Q 2 



