PURPLE SANDPIPER.
‘Tringa maritima, Brunn.

Le Becasseau violet.

: ne Se Cae we
“ Tue locality of this species, says Mr. Selby, “ being strictly confined to the rock
seldom found upon the flat and sandy shores, (the usual resort of most of the maritime scolopaceous birds, )
- ’
has occasioned its falling less frequently under the notice of ornithologists, and its history has been conse-

quently involved in much obscurity, and there is some difficulty in collating the synonyms under which it h
been described by different authors.”

y Coasts of the ocean, and

as

The most remarkable feature presented by this species of Sandpiper consists in the great diffe
colour between it and the rest of the genus, the plumage during a great portion of the ye

rence of
ar, and especially
the breeding-season, having a rich violet lustre; we have also seen specimens exhibiting traces of the barred
markings of black and red, so conspicuous in the Knot (Tringa Canutus), to which species the Purple Sand-
piper evidently bears a close affinity. The specimens referred to as resembling the Knot were, we must
observe, from the region of the Arctic circle, whither this bird is Supposed to retire, for the purpose of incu-
bation, when it leaves us in April, and from whence it again returns to the temperate portions of Europe
early in autumn, appearing in our island in October, and frequenting the rocky shores, particularly promon-
tories, artificial jetties, and embankments. On the Northumberland coast and in the Fern Islands, Mr. Selby
informs us it is very common, and he further remarks that he has met with the young in the month of June,
a circumstance which proves that at least occasionally it breeds in our island.

Like many other species of the genus it congregates in small flocks, and has the same wheeling flight
which distinguishes the Dunlin, &c.

Its food consists of small shelled mollusca, marine plants, and minute crustacea.

The Purple Sandpiper appears to be very widely distributed, at least over the northern portions of the
globe, being common in the northern parts of America, as well as those of Europe and Asia.

In winter the head and neck are greyish black tinged with brown ; orbits, eye-streak, and chin greyish
white; breast grey inclining to brown, many of the feathers being darker in the centre and margined with
white ; belly and under tail-coverts white, streaked and spotted with dark brown; back and scapulars greyish
black with purple reflections, and each feather margined with grey ; wing-coverts greyish black margined and
tipped with white, forming a bar across the wings ; cece nearest the tertials almost wholly white, the
rest only tipped with white ; rump and upper tail-coverts blackish brown; middle tail-feathers greyish black ;
outer ones lighter grey margined with white ; bill reddish orange at the base; blackish at the tip ; legs and
feet ochreous yellow.

In summer the whole of the plumage becomes darker, the purple hue more conspicuous ; the feathers on
the head are margined with greyish white, and the spots on ie breast are BOG cistmaer

In the young the whole of the plumage is of a dull greyish black, margined with dirty yellowish brown ;
the sides of the neck and breast are grey, with darker streaks ; and the flanks and under tail-coverts are
streaked longitudinally with deep ash grey.

We have figured an adult of the natural size.