230 
Allen’s naturalist’s librarv. 
in size, and have been separated as Pelidna padjica. In winter 
the Dunlins migrate south as far as California and the West 
Indies in the New World, and also visit the coasts of China, 
North-western India and the Mediterranean countries to the 
Canaries on the west, and as far as Zanzibar on the East 
African coast. As with so many of the waders, the Dunlin 
varies considerably in size, and there is a small form found in 
Europe which breeds along the Baltic and is not uncommon 
on our English coasts. This is the bird usually known as 
Schinz’s Dunlin {Pelidna schinzt). It is probably this small 
form which has been found breeding in Italy and also in Spain. 
I have often shot specimens of the small form, and was at one 
time inclined to consider it a more solitary bird than the 
common Long-billed Dunlin of our coasts, but I have also 
found both long- and short-billed birds mixed up in the same 
flock. 
Habits. — In winter the Dunlin is decidedly the commonest 
ot all our shore birds, and is sometimes seen in immense 
flocks. When the tide is out, little parties may be seen feed- 
ing in company on the edges of the shallow pools left by the 
receding waters, while others are busily engaged in procuring 
food on the mud-flats. When alarmed, they fly off with a 
harsh note like the syllable s-k-r-e-e, and as one takes wing it is 
generally joined by several others in the vicinity, which fly off 
in company. When the tide is full, and the mud-flats are 
covered, the Dunlins betake themselves to the sea-beach, and 
congregate in large or small companie.s, occupying the time in 
preening their plumage, or in sleeping with their head turned 
round and the bill hidden under their shoulder-feathers. 
Even then they are not easy of approach, as they have 
generally one or two sentinels posted, or are watched over by 
the wary Ringed Plover. On such occasions they generally fly 
a little way out to sea and settle again on the shingle at some 
little distance, and as they wheel off, they go through some 
evolutions which are interesting to watch, as at one moment 
the flock becomes almost invisible in the bright sunlight and 
then reappears as a little dark cloud moving about the surface 
of the waves. At these times it is not easy to whistle them 
within hail, but as the hour approaches for the tide to ebb, the 
Dunlins become much more restless and occasionally little 
