DUNLIN 



Trtnga alpina 



URING the spring and autumn migrations the Dunlin is 

 the commonest of all the Sandpipers on the coasts of 

 the British Islands, and there is little doubt that numbers 

 of these remain in this country throughout the year. It 

 is a regular summer visitor to the Outer Hebrides, and 

 the Orkneys and Shetlands, but in England it is rather a 

 local bird during the breeding season. 



The Dunlin is the most gregarious of all the Sandpipers, and may be 

 seen in enormous flocks, even during the breeding season. These flocks vary 

 from a few individuals to thousands of birds. It is very fond of associating 

 with other Sandpipers, especially on migration. In winter its favourite resorts 

 are the mudbanks, exposed at low water in some estuary ; there it may be 

 observed running over the slimy surface of the mud, searching for the small 

 worms, tiny molluscs, and marine insects on which it feeds. Sometimes it 

 runs along in the shallow water as the tide slowly covers the mud, or dodges 

 about among the tufts of sea grass on the shore at high water. When dis- 

 turbed, the whole flock rises at once and flies off, seldom leaving even a straggler 

 behind. It is a bird of very rapid flight, and rises quickly from the ground 

 without any of the zigzagging motions of the common Snipe. When a large 

 flock of these birds is flying in the distance they become invisible every now 

 and then, as they wheel round and expose the upper part of their plumage 

 to the observer, while yet again the whole flock flashes out white as the 

 under parts are exposed to the sun. 



The Dunlin is rather a quiet bird. Its call-note may be described as a 



grating trill, somewhat resembling the syllables ' trr-ee-ee-eej or simply 



' trr? During the breeding season, the male, in addition to the ordinary 



trill of the Sandpipers, has a hoarse cry rather like the word ' cheese] some- 



VOL. in. 2 R 153 



