al 



DUiNLIN. 



TRINGA ALPINA, Linn. 



Tringa alpina, Linn. S. N. i. p. 249 (1766) ; Naum. vii. 



p. 426; Yarr. ed. 4^ iii. p. 377; Dresser, viii. p. 21. 

 Tringa cinclus, Macg. iv. p. 203. 

 Tringa variabilis^ Hetvitson, ii. p. 364. 



Becasseau variable, French ; Alpen-Strandliiufer, German ; 

 Churrilla, Correplaya, Spanish. 



This lively little Sandpiper is perhaps the most 

 common of om' British shore-birds, and under one or 

 other of its various aliases — Stint, Ox-bird, Piirre, 

 Mud-Lark — is probably well known to most of my 

 readers. Although the Dunlin is to be met with at 

 almost all seasons of the year upon all parts of our 

 coasts, the majority of our home-bred birds are reared 

 upon inland moors and swamps, frequently far inland, 

 and at a very considerable height above the sea, never, 

 so far as I am aware, upon the stretches of shingle 

 or the sand-hills that are the nurseries of the Ringed 

 Plover, the Sea-Pie, and the Terns. I have met with 

 the Dunlin in early August in the centre of Scotland 

 on the water-shed of the tributaries of the Tay and 

 the Spey at certainly luore than 1500 feet above the 



