The Bird Book 



Now these, too, take wing, and apparently we 

 are left to cross the pebbles without feathered 

 company. But as we go, here a Ringed Plover 

 and there a Dunlin, invisible till they take wing, 

 start up and fly off whistling their alarm. We 

 reach the edge of the river and have to make our 

 way across a mud-flat an ideal feeding-ground, 

 to judge by the number of birds that are usually 

 to be found there. It is intersected by hundreds 

 of tiny little ditches in which curlews are busily 

 feeding, now and then raising their heads to look 

 around for danger, taking good care not to allow 

 us to approach. Here, too, are flocks of Dunlin. 

 It is only by bending ourselves almost double and 

 walking like beach-combers that we can get within 

 a few yards of them. Even the wary little Ringed 

 Plover will sometimes allow himself to be duped 

 in this way. 



At this time of the year the Dunlin is by far 

 the commonest bird on our shores. Large numbers 

 come from the north, and those that breed on 

 moors in the neighbourhood frequent the shore 

 in winter, exchanging their brighter summer 

 plumage for one more suited to the colder season 

 when their general colouring above is ashy- 

 brown, some of the feathers having indistinct, 

 black centres. On the wing-coverts these black 

 centres are more pronounced. The larger series 

 of the coverts are tipped with white, and so 

 form a distinct wing-band. The head and neck 



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