322 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



streaks; belly, vent, and under tail coverts, white, the latter 

 having a faint dusky line along the shafts. Wing feathers, dusky, 

 first quill white, edged and tipped with dull white; the margin 

 broader on the inner feathers. The coverts on the larger wing 

 feathers, dark and glossy, those innermost being tipped with white. 

 Rump and upper tail coverts, black, the latter tipped with reddish. 

 Tail feathers grey, edged with white; the central feathers longest, 

 darkest, and edged with reddish. Space between the shoulders, 

 blackish brown, edged w T ith reddish, the outer edges of the large 

 feathers white. Scapulars with broad reddish brown edges; some 

 of the wing coverts broadly tipped with white. Legs and feet 

 greenish yellow; claws black; inner edge of the greater toe serrated. 

 Iris, dark brown. Contents of stomach, coarse sand and the 

 softened remains of small Crustacea." 



THE DUNLIN. 



T RING A VARIABILIS. 

 Pollaireun. Gille Feadaig. 



THE Gaelic name of Pollaireun, given to the Dunlin in the Long 

 island, signifying "bird of the mud pits," expresses in a single 

 word its habits better than any English or Scottish synonyme. 

 The Dunlin, in fact, is nearly always found, except during the 

 breeding season, in places where it can bore into the muddy 

 sand for its living. Here it may at all hours be heard pre- 

 facing its repast with a shrill cry, as it alights by day or 

 by night, in flocks, on some tempting place left bare by the 

 receding tide. The flocks which are seen on our coasts in autumn 

 and winter are occasionally very large, though not, perhaps, so 

 extraordinary as those that have been observed in other parts of 

 Britain. Mr Thompson, in his work on the Birds of Ireland, 

 speaks of having, in 1847, seen a flock of not less than two 

 thousand five hundred Dunlins in Belfast Bay, and another of 

 about one thousand five hundred, three hundred yards distant 

 from it. Again, he mentions a still larger flock, in which there 

 could not have been less than five thousand birds. "A few days 

 afterwards," he continues, " a friend being out shooting early in 

 the morning, on the down shore of the bay, saw a flock of several 

 thousands. He described their appearance, as the sun rose, to 



