292 
SCOLOPACIDiE. 
a friend being out shooting early in the morning on the Down 
shore of the bay^ saw a flock of several thousands. He described 
their appearance, as the sun rose, to have been one of the most 
beautiful sights he ever witnessed. The great body flrst appeared 
glancing in the sun ; then it broke up into a dozen flocks, which 
rose and fell in the air like molten silver, or, as his companion 
observed, like show^ers of new shillings — a most apt image ! One 
of the flnest effects is when the background is so dark that the 
birds are only seen in silvery whiteness^ flashing their under 
plumage upon us. The uncertainty as to where they may next ap- 
pear — like that of lightning from an extensive mass of thunder- 
cloud — adds much to the eflect. Only for a space 
“ Brief as tlie lightning in the coUied night ” 
can they be observed under such circumstances. 
Trom seventy to a hundred dunlins have often been obtained 
from one discharge of a shoulder-gun; but the swdvel-guns used 
of late years in wild-fowl shooting produce terrible devastation 
among them. They are generally fired at on the ground ; about 
150, however, have been brought down from a flock on wing. 
On the ground about 200, in addition to a few redshanks, have 
twice been slain; but on the 16th of October, 1843, 216 w^ere 
picked up after one discharge, and on the 9th of December, 1845, 
upwards of 300. In one of the above instances (Nov. 10), 
several of the wounded were borne off by grey crows, before the 
shooter could reach the spot : such is a common practice of 
the crows, of wdiich numbers are always at the sea-side.* 
Dunlins and ring-dotterels associate much together at all times 
on .the shore, but the latter is a much less numerous species. 
* This is more fully noticed under Grey Crow, in the 1st volume of this work, 
p. 313 : — the pursuit of the dunlin by the peregrine falcon, merlin, and sparrow- 
hawk will be found respectively under pp. 35, 53, and 75 of that volume. 
Wilson, in his ‘American Ornithology’ (Jardine’s edit. vol. ii. p. 331), remarks, 
on similar occasions to the above, that “ while crowds of these victims are fluttering 
along the sand, the small pigeon-hawk, constrained by necessity, ventures to make a 
sweep among the dead in presence of the proprietor, but as suddenly pays for his 
temerity with his life.” From Wilson’s remarks, dunlins would seem to be as 
common on the shores of the United States as with us, but Audubon writes as if he 
had never met with them in such numbers. 
