382 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



many Dunlins that do not breed. I have seen them in the 

 channel between Barrow and Walney in the breeding-time, 

 though not of course in the numbers which we found in the 

 same locality in the fall of the year. Some individuals retain 

 breeding plumage long after the majority have moulted into the 

 plain grey and white dress of winter. Thus, in 1888, a male 

 Dunlin, which I shot near Bowness on the 23d of October, 

 retained the black breast of the breeding season nearly intact. 

 These little birds seem to feed chiefly on the small shellfish, both 

 bivalves and univalves, which they obtain in the creeks and on 

 the sandy flats of our estuaries. 



LITTLE STINT. 



Tringa minuta, Leisl. 



Of the numerous Waders which throng the estuaries of the 

 north-west of England almost annually, perhaps the rarest, 

 certainly the most local in its choice of feeding-grounds, is the 

 Little Stint. This especially applies to the neighbourhood of 

 Morecambe Bay. Dr. Gough does not appear to have met with 

 it in the vicinity of Arnside, neither does Mr. Durnford 

 include it with data in his list of Birds found in the neighbour- 

 hood of Walney Island. My own inquiries elicited the fact that 

 Mr. C. A. Hamond shot three Little Stints near Arnside when 

 shooting there on the 7th and 8th of Sept. 1876. Whether 

 it ever occurs at Ravenglass cannot be decided, since all 

 shooting on the estuary is prohibited by the Lord of the Manor. 

 Possibly it will be detected some day on the sands of the fore- 

 shore between Drigg and Seascale. But the only part of our 

 coast-line upon which the Little Stint appears with anything 

 akin to certainty, is that of the English Solway between Silloth 

 and Gretna. Mr. T. C. Heysham, whose information hereon 

 was chiefly derived from his collector, James Cooper, wrote to 

 Yarrell on September 15, 1839: ' Some time ago the Little 

 Sandpiper was credited a rare bird ; but this is by no means 

 the case. Here it is seen every autumn and occasionally in the 

 spring, and I have a specimen which was caught alive by a 

 little boy, clerk to Mr. L. of Carlisle ' [i.e. on the cattle 



