BRITISH BIRDS. 75 



THE DUNLIN. 



(Tringa Variabtlts^ Meyer. Becasseau brunette ou 

 variable, Temm.) 



MEASURES about seven- inches and a half in 

 length, and in breadth about fourteen; but some- 

 times rather more. The bill is black, grooved on 

 the sides of the upper mandible, and about an 

 inch and a quarter in length: tongue nearly the 

 same length, sharp and hard at the point: the 

 ground colour of the upper parts of its plumage, 

 from the beak to the rump, is ferruginous, or 

 rusty red; but the middle of each feather is black, 

 and the edges of some of them narrowly fringed 

 with yellowish white, or ash-grey: in some speci- 

 mens the lesser wing coverts are dingy ash brown ; 

 in others clear brown, edged with ferruginous 

 rather deeply: the quills and greater coverts are 

 dark brown, the latter deeply tipped with white, 

 which, together with the bases of the secondaries, 



