THE DUNLIN OK PUR RE. 291 



like silver lines, occasionally of great length. A nock Hying for 

 a great distance just above the margin of the flowing tide, has 

 strongly resembled, from their white plumage being displayed, a 

 single wave sweeping rapidly onwards. March 10, 1810. — I was 

 particularly attracted by the beauty of a large flock, one moment 

 shooting out in the form of a cornucopia, the next gathered into 

 a circle ; one instant almost dazzling by their extreme brightness, 

 the next dark in hue,- and again, on the turn of the wing, exhibit- 

 ing both light and darkness. When the back or breast is turned 

 towards the spectator, every bird is individualized or distinctly 

 marked ; but when they sweep so as to show only the line of the 

 back, they are almost invisible. 



January 27, 1847. — Within the railway embankment opposite 

 " the Grove," I saw a flock of not less than 2,500 dunlins, and about 

 300 yards from them another of about 1,500. The larger body 

 rising into the air and going through their brilliant evolutions, 

 attracted every one on the adjacent highway ; most of the people 

 standing still in admiration of them. Descending from on wing, 

 they all swept down in the same direction, and covered an extent 

 of bank in such a manner as to remind me of grain thrown from 

 the hands of the sower until it reaches the ground and is scattered 

 along its surface. Every bird of the multitude, on alighting, 

 moved at the same moderate pace, between walking and running, 

 about equidistant from each other, and their heads being all simi- 

 larly elevated they had a most formal and singular appearance. All, 

 too, were, as usual, when thus congregated at any season (according 

 to my observation), uttering their notes, which sounded most 

 pleasingly musical. The voices of a host of dunlins occasionally 

 gives as good an illustration of multitudinous sound as I can well 

 imagine. December 24, 1840. — After the tide had ebbed for a 

 considerable way I saw more dunlins close to the road before 

 Fort William, than I had ever before observed in so small a space. 

 There could not have been less than 5,000 — as many as 3,000 

 were in a dense flock, busily feeding and keeping up a thrilling 

 concert, like grey linnets when congregated previous to roosting — 

 the others were somewhat more scattered. A few days afterwards, 



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