summer. 



156 ,, THE BIRDS OF OUR RAMBLES. 



widely Our last species is the DUNLIN (Tringa 



i^giSd alpina), a bird that also visits the northern moors 

 iike ym to breed, leaving the coast where it has lived 

 during 5 during the winter in flocks, and separating over 

 these higher grounds in pairs. Its breeding 

 season is in May, the eggs being laid towards 

 the end of that month. It will be remarked that 

 the Dunlin is much handsomer in spring than 

 in winter plumage, much of its upper parts being 

 chestnut and black, and the white lower parts 

 have become nearly uniform black. During the 

 pairing season the male soars up into the air and 

 utters a love trill, but the usual call-note on the 

 moors is a long-drawn teezh. The food of the 

 Dunlin up here in summer is composed of insects 

 and their larvae, and various ground fruits. The 

 nest is carefully concealed on the ground, often 

 near a clear moorland pool, or in a swampy 

 hollow in the centre of a grass tuft. It is little 

 more than a hollow, lined with a few bits of dry 

 herbage. The eggs are four in number, varying 

 from buffish to greenish brown in ground colour, 

 spotted and blotched with rich reddish brown and 

 gray, sometimes streaked with dark brown. Even 

 during the breeding season the Dunlin is re- 

 markably social, and little parties congregate at 

 the feeding-grounds. As soon as the young 

 are reared, about the end of July, the movement 

 to the coast begins, and for the remainder of the 

 year the Dunlin is a littoral species. It should 

 be remarked, however, that by far the greatest 

 number of Dunlins are seen on our coasts in 

 autumn, passing south, although the bird is fairly 

 common all the winter through. The Redshank 



