HABITS
The well-known European dunlin has occurred occasionally as a straggler on our eastern coasts, Massachusetts and New York. It has probably occurred here more often than is known, for it closely resembles our red-backed sandpiper, especially in winter plumage. There is no reason why it should not occur here more often, for it is now known to breed regularly on the east coast of Greenland.
Thayer and Bangs (1914) thought, at one time, that we should recognize three races of the dunlin, which they designated as follows:
Pelidna alpina alpina (Linn.), western Europe. Small, with shortest, straightest bill; upper parts darker with less reddish; heavily spotted (sometimes almost streaked) with dusky below, between throat and black breast patch.
Pelidna alpina pacifica Coues. North America. Much larger, with much longer, more curved bill; upper parts paler with much more reddish; much less heavily spotted with dusky below, between throat and black breast patch.
Pelidna alpina sakhalina (Vieill.) East Siberia. Size and length and shape of bill intermediate between that of the other two forms; colors much paler than in either; upper parts very pale reddish, much mixed with gray; back of neck and top of head nearly wholly pale gray; below very slightly spotted with dusky, between throat and black breast patch (much less so, even than in pacifica).
Recently, Mr. Bangs tells me, he has come to the conclusion that the Siberian bird should not be separated from the American, as the characters are too slight and rather intermediate. This seems like a wise decision, as the naming of intermediates is undesirable.
Much has been published on the habits of the dunlin, but, as they differ but little from those of our birds, it seems superfluous to write its full life history.
Nesting.—Comparatively few of the great hosts of dunlins which visit England in fall and winter breed on the mainland of Great Britain. Macgillivray (1852) gives a good account of their nesting habits in Scotland, as follows:
The dunlins, in fact, breed in great numbers on the heaths of many parts of Scotland and its larger islands, where they may be found scattered in the haunts selected by the golden plovers, with which they are so frequently seen in company that they have popularly obtained the name of plovers' pages. Sometimes about the middle of April, but always before that of May, they are seen dispersed over the moors in pairs like the birds just named, which at this season they greatly resemble in manners. From this period until the end of August none are to be found along the shores of the sea, instead of searching which, they now seek for insects and worms, in the shallow pools, soft ground, and by the edges of lakes and marshes. The male frequently flies up to a person intruding upon his haunts, and sometimes endeavours to entice him away by feigning lameness.
Rev. Henry H. Slater (1898) says that the nest "is usually in a tussock of grass, a roughly made hollow, inartistically lined with grass, but often carefully concealed in the herbage."