380 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



the bird that he had secured, postponing until the morrow the 

 recovery of the second bird, which he would not have done had 

 he been at all aware of its rarity. Mr. Tandy happened 

 to call at his father's house the same evening, and at once 

 recognised that the Sandpiper was unknown to him, and there- 

 fore took it home and skinned it himself. Eaine saw the third 

 bird subsequently in the same neighbourhood, but it was too 

 wild to admit of his securing it. 



DUNLIN. 



Tringa alpina, L. 



During the winter months large numbers of these birds 

 frequent Morecambe Bay, and are taken plentifully in the 

 1 bands ' of nets set by the Flookburgh fowlers, to whom they 

 are known as ' Purrs ' or ' sea-mice.' They are often termed 

 ' stints ' on our coast-line, but on the English side of the Solway 

 Firth are best known to the fisher-folk as ' sea-mice.' On the 

 fells near Alston, the name of ' Plover-provider ' attaches to the 

 Dunlin, from its well-known habit of associating with the 

 Golden Plover. Although the majority of the Dunlins which 

 frequent our estuaries in autumn and winter are visitants from 

 distant breeding-grounds, yet a good many pairs breed either 

 sporadically on the fells of the Pennine range or in one or two 

 favourite localities near the coast-line. Mr. Seebohm had no 

 doubt been misinformed when he wrote in his British Birds, as 

 well as more recently in his Geographical Distribution of the 

 Charadriidw, that a few pairs breed on the mountains of the 

 Lake district. At least I know no one who has found the 

 Dunlin nesting on Skiddaw or any other of the Lake mountains 

 proper. But if the expression be restricted to the fell lands 

 which form our eastern boundary, it is perfectly accurate. 

 Upon Crossfell, for example, I found a fair sprinkling of 

 Dunlins and Golden Plover in June 1888. We first heard the 

 two species call almost simultaneously, and noticed a Dunlin 

 closely following a Golden Plover in flight, even to pitching on 

 a tussock beside the larger bird when it alighted. When the 

 Plover rose, so did the Dunlin. When the Plover whistled, the 



