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ARQUATELLA MARITIMA.

Purple Sand piper,

Tringa maritima, Briinn. Orn. Bor., no. 182.
——— nigricans, Mont. Linn. Trans., vol. iv, ps 40 ype 2
—— striata, Flem. Hist. of Brit. Anim., p. 110.
— arquatella, Pall.”Zoog. Rosso-Asiat., tom. ii. p 190.
——— Canadensis, Lath. Ind. Orn., Supp. p. 65.
—— littoralhs, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl., Do OY.
Totanus maritimus, Steph. Cont. of Shaw’s Gen. Zool., vol xii. p 146,

Tringa (Arquatella) maritima, Baird, Cat. of N. Amer. Birds in Mus. Smiths Inst p. xlvii. no. 528
"9 Orel, . . a e.

; : : a :
Purs bird, although nowhere very numerous in the British Islands, is nevertheless sufficiently abundant in

arded as a common species ; it is sometimes met with in
all the rocky parts of our shores, from north to south, from
inces no preference for the eastern over the western coasts.
It is less numerous in Ireland than in England and Scotland. As the Dunlin loves muddy flats, and the Stint
shingly shores, so the Purple Sandpiper delights to be among kelp, sea-weed, and shelving billow-washed
beaches ; its short tarsi, long stout toes, and short bulky body, as compared with the clender Dunlin, Stint,
and other shore-loving Sandpipers, indicate that it differs from them in its mode of life. In confirmation of
this induction, I may mention that Mr. Gatcombe, of Plymouth, writes :—* I have observed a peculiar habit
in the Purple Sandpiper when feeding on the rocks during rough weather. On seeing a large wave approach,
it crouches and holds on the rock, allowing the spray to dash completely over it, and, on the wave
receding, rises and displays the greatest activity in picking up its food until another wave compels it to
crouch again.” At the period the Purple Sandpiper visits us its trivial name is very applicable ; for not only
does the whole of the upper surface assume a purple tint, but the feathers of the back and rump are tinged
with violet: a change of colour, however, is very perceptibly going on before the bird leaves us in spring,

autumn, winter, and spring to entitle it to be reg
flocks, but more often in smaller numbers, in
Cornwall to the Orkneys, and apparently ey

and by midsummer its plumage is so metamorphosed as to give it the appearance of a totally different species.
From the crown of the head to the lower part of the scapularies all the feathers are edged with chestnut and
white, while the purple winter colouring of their centres has given place to brownish black. In this dress,
however, it scarcely ever, if ever, appears in the British Islands; but in such a garb it is seen in Iceland, Spitz-
bergen, Greenland, and probably in the whole of Arctic America ; for every voyager who has written on the
avifauna of those regions speaks of it as a common summer-resident there. Messrs. Evans and Sturge, who
visited Spitzbergen in 1855, say :—‘‘ The Purple Sandpiper (Zringa maritima, Brinn.) was very abundant
in Coal Bay, on the south side of Ice Sound; and we found four of their nests on the bigh fjeld. Beautiful
little nests they were, deep in the ground, and lined with stalks of grass and leaves of the Dwarf Birch
(Betula nana, L.), containing mostly four eggs, of an olive-greev, handsomely mottled with purplish brown,
chiefly at the larger end. We watched this little bird with much interest as it waded into-some pool of
snow-water or ran along the shingle, every now and then raising its wings over its back and exhibiting the
delicate tint of the underside, at the same time uttering its loud shrill whistle.”—* Ibis,’ vol. i. p. 171.

Holbeell, in his ‘ Fauna of Greenland,’ says that it breeds throughout that country, that it “ disappears from
the sea-coast at the beginning of June, and resorts to the tableland on the mountains, where it remains a
short time in small flocks, and then goes in pairs to the breeding-places, which, though always at some distance
from the sea, are never far inland; it lays four eggs, and is very careful of its young ones.” That it also
breeds in the Faroe Islands is certain, the late Mr. Wolley having sent thence to Mr. Hewitson eggs
from which the old bird was shot, and informed him that it there “ breeds sparingly on the very tops of high
mountains, where I found its young at the end of June still unable to fly. One pair I remember particularly
was in the very midst of a colon of Skuas ; they stood upon large stones, in an easy attitude, but evidently
watching our mem entst From this spot I have now for two years ae them eggs.”

“Mr. Dann remarks,” says Yarrell, “that, unlike the others of this tribe, the Purple Sandpiper does not
altogether quit the Saraiva coast in winter; as the ice accumulates and the sea freezes up, it betakes

itself to the outermost range of islands and rocks with which that c at IK Hous a
among the sea-weed left bare by the slight fall of the tide, on the marie insects which : ae a Ly . ge
of the water. I have procured specimens throughout the winter on the Swedish cee i d ae oe
frosts. It is perfectly fearless. During windy weather, when not feeding, It seeks shelfer in the crevic

‘ 3 : mee » bird appears much
the rocks. Its plumage in winter 1s very thick, and the bird appears

oast is so numerously studded, feeding

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larger than in summer