Abstract
THE feeding-habits of the dunlin form the subject of a paper-based on close personal observation-contributed by Mr. J. M. Dewar to the January number of the Zoologist. In surface-feeding these attractive birds search for small organisms floating in the wash of the sea or carried seawards by the shore-streams, as well as for minute insects and spiders on the sand or mud, although the main objects of their quest are tiny univalve molluscs, with the shells of which their gizzards are always crammed. Dead shells, which form a large proportion of those on most shores, are left alone. Dunlins also probe the sand or - mud for bivalve molluscs and worms. Both in the act of tapping and probing the two halves of the beak appear to be slightly separated; it is also probable that the separation increases with the depth of the probing, although the upper and lower portions remain nearly parallel until they are thrust in to their extreme limit, when the terminal part of the upper one becomes expanded at the moment of contact with the “find.”
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Bird-Life . Nature 79, 501–502 (1909). https://doi.org/10.1038/079501b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/079501b0