292 CHARADRIID^] 



which falls pleasantly on the ear of the listener. A startled 

 Dunlin, as it rises, gives forth a prolonged plaintive single 

 note like queeze or wheeze. 



This species is easily tamed and at the proper season 

 will assume the nuptial plumage (Newton, ' Dictionary of 

 Birds,' p. 172). 



Nest. In spring the greater numbers of British-breeding 

 Dunlins quit the sea-coast, resorting to marshy grounds and 

 moor-lands, in both flat and mountainous districts. Indeed 

 this species frequently resorts to considerable elevations 

 above the sea-level. I have found the bird breeding along 

 the shores of inland lakes, notably on Lough Sheelin, co. 

 Cavan. In 1901, Dr. E. Blake Knox discovered several 

 pairs nesting on the shores of one of the Westmeath lakes : 

 the nests were built in very short grass and at some twenty 

 paces from the lake shore ('Irish Naturalist,' 1901, p. 147). 

 Mr. Campbell found nests in rather similar situations, i.e., 

 in short grass on the slob-lands at Inch, Lough Swilly 

 ('Irish Naturalist,' 1901, p. 175). According to Mr. Ussher's 

 observations the nest " is made in long coarse grass, some- 

 times beside lakes and rivers in the heart of the country, as 

 in Westmeath ; sometimes by the coast, in marshes adjoin- 

 ing the sand-hills or on reclaimed slob-lands, as in Donegal. 

 It has been found by Mr. Ellison on the top of the Wicklow 

 mountains, 1,700 feet above the sea, where the moor was 

 covered with moss, stunted heather and patches of cotton- 

 grass, and studded with small ponds of peaty water. This 

 nest was a tiny cup-shaped hollow, without cover, in a patch 

 of grey moss, surrounded with a few wiry bents and scraps 

 of heather, and neatly lined with shreds of lichen, and a few 

 scraps of heather and dry bents. In low lands the tussock 

 of coarse grass in which the nest is placed usually over- 

 hangs the eggs, and the cup is comfortably lined with dry 

 grass, but a small isolated bank in a northern lake con- 

 tained two nests of Redshanks, one of Common Sandpiper 

 and one of Dunlin among the green grass which was not 

 long enough to cover the eggs " (' Birds of Ireland,' p. 284). 



The eggs, four in number, are pear-shaped, and prettily 

 marked with blotches and large specks of rich reddish- 

 brown, on a light greenish-grey ground-colour. Incubation 

 begins early in June, and the young are affectionately cared 

 for by the parents ; the latter will tumble and drag them- 

 selves with outspread tail and wings in front of an intruder 

 to decoy him from their hiding chicks. When incubation 



