LONG-BILLED RUNNING BIRDS. 



DUNLIN. Plate 108. 8 inches. Upper parte 

 brown ruddy on crown and back with black 

 centres to the feathers ; under parts white, with 

 black streaks on neck and chest, and with a large 

 black patch on the belly ; bill and legs black. In 

 winter ashy-gray above, and without the black belly- 

 patch. Resident. 



Eggs. 4, pear-shaped, greenish-white, spotted and 

 blotched heavily with red-brown; 1'35 X '95 inch 

 (plate 135). 



Nest. Generally a depressed tuft of grass, with a 

 few bits of dead herbage for lining. 



The Dunlin, as a breeding bird, nests on the ground 

 on moorland, chiefly from Lancashire and Yorkshire 

 northwards, and in some parts of Ireland. No doubt 

 it is because of this that the bird appears fairly gene- 

 rally about inland waters and marshy spots at times of 

 migration. In summer a few non-breeding birds are 

 scattered along our coasts, and large flocks occur there 

 in winter. But it is at the times of the spring and 

 autumn migrations that the Dunlin becomes exceed- 

 ingly numerous. At those seasons birds are met in 

 flocks, with or without other small waders, ranging 

 from half-a-dozen to several hundred birds. At high- 

 water they stand back on the beach at rest ; when it 

 begins to ebb they dart about in quick-flying, closely 



