_Plumages._--In natal down the young dunlin is similar to the young red-backed sandpiper, but is paler in color, more buffy, and less rufous. The subsequent molts and plumages are similar to those of our American bird. They are well described in Witherby's (1920) Handbook. _Food._--Macgillivray (1852) made some careful observations on the feeding habits of dunlins, which are well worth quoting, as follows: Being in a muddy place, which probably afforded a good supply of food, they did not run much, but yet moved quickly about, with their legs a little bent, the body horizontal, the head a little declined, and the bill directed forward toward the ground at an angle of about 45°. I observed that they seemed in general merely to touch the surface, but also sometimes to introduce their bill into the mud for about a fourth of its length; but this was always with a rapid tapping and somewhat wriggling movement, and not by thrusting it in sedately. This flock having flown away, I observed another of about 12 individuals alight at a little distance on the other side of the mill stream. Being very intent on tapping the mud, they allowed me to approach within 10 paces, so that I could see them very distinctly. I examined the marks made by them in the mud. Although it was soft, very few footmarks were left, but the place was covered with numberless small holes made by their bills, and forming little groups, as if made by the individual birds separately. Of these impressions very many were mere hollows not much larger than those on a thimble, and not a twelfth of an inch deep; others scarcely perceptible, while a few were larger, extending to a depth of two-twelfths; and here and there one or two to the depth of nearly half an inch. On scraping the mud, I could perceive no worms or shells. It is thus clear that they search by gently tapping, and it appears that they discover the object of their search rather by the kind of resistance which it yields than by touch like that of the human skin. Witherby's (1920) Handbook says that the food is mainly animal and includes mollusks, worms, crustaceans (shrimps and sandhoppers), insects (beetles, flies, etc.), and spiders. _Behavior._--The habits of the European dunlin seem to be the same as those of our bird. It is equally tame and confiding, unless shot at too much, and it has the same habit of flying in large, closely bunched flocks. John T. Nichols tells me that some that he saw near Liverpool in September, "when on the ground, moved about very actively for the most part (contrasted with the sluggishness of the redback as we know it in migration) and presented a low, hunch-shouldered figure." Abel Chapman (1924) says: