COMMON SANDPIPER. DUNLIN. 159 



their station, they imitate the dipper by the peculiar duck- 

 ing of the body ; when a gaudy dragon-fly displays its wings 

 it is at once pursued and captured by the untiring sandpipers. 

 The nest is soon formed, and is generally a hollow in the sand, 

 or placed in some bank at a distance from the water. The 

 eggs are usually four, enormously disproportionate in size to 

 the bird, cream-coloured, blotched and spotted with brown 

 and purple. After the cares of the breeding season, we see 

 the parents and their young collected in a small flock, moving 

 down the river to the sea, there to await a favourable wind 

 for their return to a more favoured clime. 



An allied species, the wood sandpiper (Totanus glareola) 

 is believed to have been observed in Ireland, on the autho- 

 rity of Dr. Robert Ball, who remarks having observed a spe- 

 cies of Totanus during several years frequenting a stream in 

 the neighbourhood of Youghal and Cork during the month 

 of June.* 



Habitat Southern Europe. 



GENUS LXXVI. TRINGA (SANDPIPER). 



SPECIES 149 THE PURRE OR DUNLIN. 



Tringa varidbilis. Linn. 

 Becasseau brunette ou variable. Temm. 



Sea-snipe. Sea-lark. Stint. 



THE preceding species we have observed occasionally forming 

 in flocks ; we now arrive at the true sandpipers. Always 

 occurring in immense flocks, but differing from them, we 

 see an approximation to the godwits in the seasonal change 

 of the plumage from gray to red or brown. 



Of these birds the dunlin occurs in the greatest abundance 

 on our coast ; and, large as are the flocks of curlew, their 

 number is small in comparison with those of this species. 

 Found along every variety of shore, they appear indifferently 

 upon the mud and ooze, or on the hard and sandy level in 

 both situations, finding an equal abundance of food in prob- 

 ing the mud or following the receding tide upon the other- 

 wise destitute strand. The dunlin is exceedingly interesting 

 in its habits, and its observation presents at all times an at- 

 traction to the ornithologist, and an amusing incident to the 

 casual observer. 



Crowded together, they occupy some sandbank, rock, or 



* Thompson. 



