122 



British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



are sufficiently perceptible to tlie eye when comparing examples of the two birds. 

 I am not aware that anyone has actually seen the nest or eggs of this bird. 



Family— SCOL OP A CID^. 



Dunlin. 



Tringa alpina, LiNN, 



THIS bird, dearly loved of the cockney shore-gunner (though what he shoots 

 it for is hard to divine, unless he has an idea that the killing of so 

 many " brace " constitutes him a " sportsman ") is a very abundant bird on our 

 coasts in autumn and spring. It is called additionally the " Purre," " Oxbird," 

 " Sea Snipe," " Sea-lark," and " Stint." These are conveniently elastic names, 

 and (except the first, which seems to have gone out of use) can be made to include 

 Sanderlings, Curlew Sandpipers, Ringed Plovers, and the small waders generally. 

 But this species, as the most abundant and most unsuspicious, oftenest seems to 

 find its way into the shore- gu.nner's bag, and seems, by right of user, to have 

 the best title to the terms. It is a bird of wide range, breeding throughout the 

 northern and central parts of Burope, Asia, and America, wintering in all but the 

 northernmost parts of them, and, in addition, in North Africa down to Somaliland, 

 India, South China, and America down to Panama. In the " British Museum 

 Catalogue of Birds," (Vol. xxii) the Bastern Asiatic and American Dunlins are 

 separated from the rest under the title of Pelidna americana, on the score of size. 

 In Britain the Dunlin breeds in most mountainous parts, but more abundantly 

 northwards. In the south it has been found nesting in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, 

 Wales, Cheshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Cumberland ; the eggs have also been 

 taken in Lincolnshire. I have not uncommonly, when fishing, seen Dunlins on the 

 moors of South Northumberland, which I had no doubt were breeding; and they 



