TEMMINCK'S STINT
passing within a fair distance-, vras secured. It proved to lie in the immature plumage, the brown
feathers on the back being edged villi a lighter shade ; legs and 1'eet a dirty olive-yellow; base of upper
and lower mandibles olive-yellow, darkening into brown towards the point. On the 1th (targe numbers
of Waders had been heard Hying over the town the previous night) I was again on the water, and after
shooting round the Hals all the morning, made my way towards "The Lumps" shortly after the tide
commenced to ebb. The Hook noticed on the preceding day (easily distinguished by a feather cut from
the wing) put in an .appearance at the accustomed feeding-time, and, fearing he might again disturb
any wandering Stint, I availed myself of an early opportunity, and, while hovering over the drain, dropped
him on to the falling tide, when he speedily disappeared from the scene. While removing the gun from
my shoulder a small Wader, skimming rapidly under the shelter of the bank, eamo in view just in time
to bo slopped by the second barrel. This bird showed precisely the same plumage as the specimen
procured on the previous day.
The full winter dress is occasionally assumed before the end of summer; while shooting on Broydou
towards the latter end of August 1S73, I met with several specimens in this stage of plumage. On the 20th,
after a stormy night and seven- thunder storm, during which immense numbers of Waders attracted by the
lights remained thing over Yarmouth for several hours, Redshanks in thousands were found on the Hats
at daybreak. Towards midday, after the tide flowed, flocks of Redshauks and U recti shanks, together with
about n couple of hundred small birds, came down to "The Lumps," where a score or so of young Common
Terns bad already settled. I had been for some time watchiug several young Kentish Plovers, intermixed
with Ringed Plovers nnd Dunlins, when half a dozen Tcmminck's Stints were recognized sitting quietly
within twenty yards of the boal. These little Waderl had been so densely surrounded by the throng that
no chance had occurred to detect them earlier. The next moment a shot fired on the upper part of the
water put the whole body on wing, and I only succeeded in stopping a couple with the shoulder-gun.
Later on in the day I obtained a third, on the edge of the ronds round the mudbanks close to the town,
nnd for the next week or so a few stragglers frequented the flats. Two of the specimens were adults in
perfect winter plumage, uhilo the third still exhibited a few of the dark feathers of summer, intermixed
with the grey of winter, on the back.
DUNLIN.
TR1NGA ALPINA.
Tuosr. desirous of ascertaining the English counties in which the Dunlin breeds must consult other pages than
those of ' Rough Notes.' llnving ascertained during my wanderings in the Northern Highlands that ibis s|ioeii-s
was widely distributed aad plentiful in the summer months, and that any amount nf specimens in nil ages and
stngi-s might lie obtain it I, I did not explore the1 districts they frequented in the south.
Rough weather in autumn is sure to move Dunlins along the shore ; I have watched Ihcin score* of times
flying head to wind while a heavy gale was raging. A couple of extracts from my notes will give some idea of
the numbers of this species that may be brought together aad pul in motion by the approach of a storm.
" September IS, 187-1- Plowing n gab- from west nnd south-west. While on the shore between Canty-
Bay nnd North Berwick, I noticed immense flocks of Knots flying along the const in the face uf the sforin.
There were also thousands of Dunlins and a few Grey Plovers and Turnstones passing; Skuas continued fly ing
along the shore all day, and those 1 was enabled to identify were Arctic, but others were too far off to he
clearly distinguished.1'
During the terrible week in Novemlter 1872 more Dunlins than I should hue imagined to be in existence
in our part of the world were seen olf the Yarmouth bench.
•• November 11, 1872. The wind was from the north-east, and a frightful gale blowing with terrific gusts
and squalls of ram. Large bodies of fowl and Dunlins in innumerable swarms wen- passing, all bound to the
north. A few flocks of Knols and Golden and Grey Plovers were now and then distinguished, and Turnstones
anil Purple Sandpipers settled in some instances almul the puddles in the road that rims to tin- liarlmur mouth."
On the 12tll, the following day, some thousands passed, holding the same course, though I lie w ind had shitted lo
oust-north-east ; the numbers seen, however, were not to he compared with lltose of ihe previous day.
Dunlins did not breed in Gleulyon. in the north-west of Perthshire, where I had the luuerwick moors for
three years, commencing in 1803, though further north I hey proved abundant, as might have been expected. At
Tain, in the cast of Ross-shire, where I hired the shootings over the " Fomlom," a flat stretch of sandy ground
surrounded by the Dornoch Firth on cute side, and the open sen on the other, 1 discovered that they sometimes
leave the hrnther-rlud moors nnd rear their young on the sandy flats adjoining the briny ocean. While at
lunch one day in June 1801) on a small grassy slope in this uncultivated desert, a pair of Dunlins wore noticed
fluttering round and occasionally alighting close at hand ; si-m after, a downy youngster was nhservis] under the
shelter of some rough herbage within a yard or two of w hero we won- sitting, and the remainder of the family
were speedily delected when a search was made. Before leaving to return lo our boats drawn up on the shores
of the Firth, we spread out nnd, examining all the likely ground, disiurbnl three or four pairs, all evidently
having either eggs or young, in the immediate vicinity of when- they were first discovered. Their hnuuts were
not infruded on, ait wo secured as many downy miles as were required for spii-imens front the first pair
observed. Since (hat lime I have never molested (his species during the breeding-season, with the exception of