If there be one whose eyes have followed the jottings of my pen thus far, let me say to such an one another word about _proper nouns in particular_. If with most philosophic indifference you have, after mighty struggles, brought yourself to repeat with the chiefest of bards, on thinking of your own high-sounding misfortune, “What’s in a name?” please let me advise you “lay your mouth in the dust,” remembering, my word for it, that there is something “considerable, if not more,” in a name—especially in such an one as Miss Delleparetta Hogg—poets and philosophers “to the contrary notwithstanding,” which I hope and pray for your edification and enlightenment I have satisfactorily proved. * * * * * GAME-BIRDS OF AMERICA.—NO. XII. [Illustration: THE DUNLIN. (_Tringa Variabilis._ TEMMINCK.)] The Dunlin, or Ox-bird, or Purre, is well entitled to the epithet “_variabilis_,” from the great difference between its summer and winter plumage. It is the Purre in summer and the Dunlin in winter in England, while in the United States it is called most commonly the Red-backed Sandpiper. In winter these birds assemble in small parties, following the tide on the oozy shores and estuaries near the sea. When undisturbed they run rather swiftly, and utter a sort of murmuring note, but when they are alarmed and forced to take wing, they utter a querulous and wailing scream. In the autumn they are seen around Vera Cruz, and may be bought in the markets of Mexico, while many, in their winter dress, remain throughout the winter within the limits of the Union. At times they frequent the coast of the Carolinas in great numbers about February, leading a vagabond life, and swayed hither and thither by every change in the temperature.