292 scolopacidjE. 



a friend being out shooting early in the morning on the Down 

 shore of the bay, saw a flock of several thousands. He described 

 their appearance, as the sun rose, to have been one of the most 

 beautiful sights he ever witnessed. The great body first appeared 

 glancing in the sun ; then it broke up into a dozen flocks, which 

 rose and fell in the air like molten silver, or, as his companion 

 observed, like showers of new shillings — a most apt image ! One 

 of the finest effects is when the background is so dark that the 

 birds are only seen in silvery whiteness, flashing their under 

 plumage upon us. The uncertainty as to where they may next ap- 

 pear — like that of lightning from an extensive mass of thunder- 

 cloud — adds much to the effect. Only for a space 



" Brief as the lightning in the collied night " 



can they be observed under such circumstances. 



From seventy to a hundred dunlins have often been obtained 

 from one discharge of a shoulder-gun ; but the swivel-guns used 

 of late years in wild-fowl shooting produce terrible devastation 

 among them. They are generally fired at on the ground ; about 

 150, however, have been brought down from a flock on wing. 

 On the ground about 200, in addition to a few redshanks, have 

 twice been slain; but on the 16th of October, 1848, 216 were 

 picked up after one discharge, and on the 9th of December, 1845, 

 upwards of 300. In one of the above instances (Nov. 10), 

 several of the wounded were borne off by grey crows, before the 

 shooter could reach the spot : such is a common practice of 

 the crows, of which numbers are always at the sea-side.* 



Dunlins and ring-dotterels associate much together at all times 

 on the shore, but the latter is a much less numerous species. 



* This is more fully noticed under Grey Crow, in the 1st volume of this work, 

 p. 313 : — the pursuit of the dunlin by the peregrine falcon, merlin, and sparrow- 

 hawk will be found respectively under pp. 35, 53, and 75 of that volume. 



Wilson, in his 'American Ornithology' (Jardine's edit. vol. ii. p. 331), remarks, 

 on similar occasions to the above, that " while crowds of these victims arc fluttering 

 along the sand, the small pigeon-hawk, constrained by necessity, ventures to make a 

 sweep among the dead in presence of the proprietor, but as suddenly pays for his 

 temerity with his life." From Wilson's remarks, dunlins would seem to be as 

 common on the shores of the United States as with us, but Audubon writes as if he 

 had never met with them in such numbers. 



