THE ZooLoGist—MaRkcH, 1872. 2963 
concealment. The following original lines, taken from the ‘ poet’s corner’ 
of a country newspaper, though somewhat invective in their style, fairly 
express the feeling still prevalent in the minds of some of the shep- 
herds and others now living near the scenes of by-gone persecution and 
bloodshed :— 
“To THE PEESWEEP. 
“ Thou idle, ill-conditioned bird, 
At sight of men most strangely stirr’d! 
Was ever passion as absurd 
Yet hatch’d in breast ? 
Can body g’ye a pleasant word ? 
Thou waur than beast! 
“* What though ye’re ruff’d wi’ bonny black, 
Wi glancing gray out owre your back, 
And wame and wings soft linings tak’ 
The hues 0’ snaw,— 
Your idle, endless, senseless clack, 
Just mars it a’. 
«’Tween herds and you there’s deadly feud ; 
He breaks your eggs and skails your brood, 
And—waur than grudging ye a rood 
O’ skrunty heather— 
He’d pook ye bare, fra’ tail to hood, 
To the last feather. 
“ He minds what Scotland greets for yet, 
When helpless Hill Folk, hard beset, 
Could naewhere but in muirlands get 
A night’s safe quarters,— 
Ye brocht the troopers on them het, 
And made them martyrs. 
«© sorra on your wicked din, 
And shame on a’ your kith and kin! 
And though there’s naething ‘neath the skin 
That’s fit for pot, 
Wad ony body ca’t a sin 
To wuss ye shot?” 
In common with most other observers of birds who have had 
opportunities of examining many specimens of the dunlin, Mr. Gray 
has been puzzled by the great variation in size to which that 
species is subjected. The ordinary wild-fow] shooters around our 
coasts are well acquainted with the fact that there are larger and 
smaller dunlins. A boatman we have often employed cuts the 
difficulty by declaring that the smaller birds with short bills and a 
