DUNLIN. 



145 



round the thicker end, and marked with a few small spots of the same 

 colour on the smaller end. Not uncommon on the Devonshire and 

 Cornwall coast ; frequent also on the coast of Wales. Is also found in 

 Greenland, Iceland, and Scandinavia, and on the Siberian Alps, as well 

 as at Hudson's Bay. 



An individual of this species had the whole under parts from the 

 neck nearly black ; another, killed in October, had the upper parts of 

 the back and scapulars chiefly cinereous, dusky on the shafts, mixed 

 with a few feathers richly margined with rufous ; head and neck pale, 

 streaked with brown, and nearly destitute of the usual rufous. We 

 learn from the Linnsean Transactions, v. viii. p. 266, that the nest is 

 composed of dried tufts of sprit, (Juncus squarosus,) and the eggs four, 

 smoky white, irregularly marked with light and dark-brown blotches, 

 rather more distant at the smaller end. 



* The circumstance of the Purre and Dunlin appearing and disappear- 

 ing in constant alternation, added to their general form, their corres- 

 ponding weight and measurement, the exact similitude of their bill and 

 legs, and their cuneiform shape and colour of the tail, have long induced 

 us to conjecture that they were actually the same species ; and that in 

 fact the black spots on the breast, and other variations in colour ob- 

 served in the Dunlin, were not more extraordinary than those changes 

 incidental to the breeding season, which are noticed in the black neck 

 and breast of the golden and grey plovers. This suspicion was not a 

 little strengthened by the inquiries of several of our scientific friends, 

 who had found these birds approach so near in plumage, that they 

 required a clearer definition of the two species. In order, therefore, to 

 obtain the best information, we procured as many of these birds as pos- 

 sible, about that period of the seasons when the changes of plumage are 

 known to take place, the early part of both the spring and autumn ; by 

 so doing we have had the satisfaction to succeed in obtaining these sup- 

 posed species in the intermediate changes of plumage, so as to leave no 

 doubt that they are one and the same. 



The plumage of one shot early in October, was a mixture of the two 

 birds, but we could not venture to annihilate one species so long esta- 

 blished unimpeached, until further corresponding evidence had been 

 obtained. Other specimens, however, partaking more of the Purre, 

 were killed in the early part of December; these had more or less 

 black feathers, margined with rufous, especially on the body near the 

 junction of the wing, and a few intermediate feathers in the scapulars 

 that evidently bespoke the Dunlin, although there were no distinct 

 spots on the belly. From what we have lately observed, the progress 

 of change in plumage is similar to what has been noticed in all other 



L 



