94 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



localities, the short-billed form is found nesting; I had their 

 eggs here several seasons, and can always go to their nesting- 

 ground any season. In Sutherlandshire I have taken a few 

 Dunlins' eggs. The birds appeared to me to be larger than the 

 Hebridean birds, but not so large as others which I have shot on 

 the Firth of Forth, where, however, I have, during the prevalence 

 or after a sharp change of wind, also shot the small form. If we 

 have an east wind blowing at Grangemouth, or between that and 

 Kincardine, which continues any length of time, our coast becomes 

 hared of almost all the big flocks of Dunlins. But at such times 

 small trips of perhaps two, three, four to six may be seen, and 

 these are almost invariably the small short-billed birds. Or if a 

 west wind has prevailed for long (and that is our best wind for 

 shooting the shore-birds on our coast) immense flocks of Dunlins 

 are found — thousands strong ; on one occasion I fired two barrels 

 into a huge flock upon Grangemouth breakwater, .... and picked 

 up sixty-seven ; . . . . but of all these not one was a short-billed 

 bird. But if the wind suddenly went round from west to east, 

 these big flocks flew right away across to the Fife shore ; and if 

 the wind continued twenty-four hours in the east, then we would 

 begin to pick up the short-billed birds, apparently in family 

 parties. My own belief is that these birds come across from 

 ' Clyde ' to ' Forth,' with (or rather against) the change of wind." 

 Again, in a letter from Dumfries, Mr. Robert Service states : 

 *' A good many pairs nest along the merse-lands west of Souther- 

 ness Point, and these certainly belong to the small-bodied and 

 short-billed race, if race it be. I always think their summer 

 plumage is not so deep or bright as the others that, at that time, 

 are still flying along the sands in great flocks, and that even till 

 the end of May are to be seen or heard flying northward to 

 further breeding quarters." 



