48 WILD-FOWL AND SEA-FOWL OF GREAT BRITAIN 



The female resembles the male in colour, but she 

 is larger ; in old birds there is scarcely any difference 

 between them as to plumage. 



Dunlins may be met with in various states of 

 plumage, for, like their near neighbours in the 

 breeding season, the Ptarmigan, they appear in 

 different colouring at the different times of the year. 

 But the vast clouds that visit the mud-flats and slub- 

 ooze at the mouth of great tidal rivers, and along the 

 shores, are all in grey and white livery. A Dunlin 

 can be easily distinguished from a Sanderling in 

 winter plumage, if one little matter is borne in mind, 

 but not else — the Dunlin has a small hind toe which 

 the Sanderling has not. The nest is a slight hollow 

 lined with bits of sedge or grass, and little heath 

 twigs ; the eggs, four in number, vary in ground- 

 colour from grey green to greenish-yellow, or a 

 brownish tint marked all over with patches and 

 spots of amber brown and light purple grey. When 

 they first arrive, the birds that are shot in their 

 mottled plumage cause many animated discussions 

 among the shore-shooters. 



There was snow in the streets of our fishing village 

 and on the roofs of the houses — deep snow. From 

 the rough, cobble-patched pavement it had been 

 shovelled off into the middle of the road, and as 

 there was not any traffic through the place this did 

 not matter ; for, as the fisher-folks said, when it 

 thawed, all the snow water would run into the 

 creek at the bottom of the long up-and-down main 

 street. 



