DUNLIN. 
TRINGA ALVINA. 
hose o( Eougl. Is Otos. Having ascertained during my ivanderings in the Northern Highlands that this species 
was widely distributed and plentiful in the summer months, and that any amount of specimens in all a-^es and 
stages might he obtained, I did not expiorc the districts they frequented in the south. 
flvio ‘ m autumn is sure to move Dunlins along the shore; I have watched them scores of times 
^y.ng h^l to wind while a heavy gale was raging. A couple of extracts fi-om my notes will give some idea of 
the numbers of this species that may he brought together and put in motion by the approach o^f a storm. 
There 1 / noticed immense flocks of Knots flying along the coast in the face of the storm 
alon" thTshol uul'us and a few Grey Plovers and Turnstones passing; Skuas continued flying 
clearly dist^:^i:ed.. " ™ f- o® to be 
During the terrible week in November 1872 more DunUns than I should have imagined to be in existence 
in our part of the world wore seen off the Yarmouth beach. existence 
“November 11, 1872. The wind was from the north-east, and a frightful gale blowing with terrific e-usts 
and squaUs of min large bodies of fowl and Dunlins in innumemlile swarms were passfng, all bound to the 
a3 kri Sanir 0-tinguished, and Turnstones 
On tL 1 tl “ "Stances about the puddles in the road that runs to the harbour mouth.” 
On the 12th, the following day, some thousands passed, holding the same course, though the wind had shitted to 
east-north-east ; the numbers seen, however, were not to be compared with those of the previous day. 
Dunlins did not breed in Glenlyon, in the north-west of Perthshiro, where I had the Iiinerwick moors for 
Girce years, commencing in 180o, though further north they proved abundant, as might have been expected. At 
Tam, in the east of Eoss-sliirc, where I hired the shootings over the “Fendom,” a flat stretch of sandy ground 
surrounded by the Dornoch Firth on one side, and the open sea on tho other, I discovered that they sometimes 
eaie the heather-clad moors and rear their young on the sandy flats adjoining the briny ocean. While at 
lunch one day in Juno 1869 on a small grassy slope in this uncultivated desert, a piir of Dunlins were noticed 
fluttering round and oeeasionally alighting close at hand ; soon after, a downy youngster w as observed under the 
s lelter of some rough herbage within a yard or two of where we were sitting, and the remainder of the family 
wxro speedily detected when a search was made. Before leaving to return to our boats drawn up on the shores 
o t le Firth, ive spread out and, examining all the likely ground, disturbed three or four pairs, all evidently 
having either eggs or young, in the immediate vicinity of where they were first discovered. Their haunts were 
not intruded on, as we secured as many downy mites as were required for specimens from the first pair 
observed. Since that time I have never molested this species during the breeding-season, ivith the exception of 
