262 THE NESTS AND EGGS OF 



Diagnostic characters : The eggs of this bird 

 require careful identification. With the small amount 

 of material at my command, I do not feel justified in 

 attempting to give any distinctive characters. 



Family CHARADRIID^. Genus Tringa. 



Sub-family SCOLOPACINM. 



PURPLE SANDPIPER. 



Tringa maritima, Gmelin, 



(British : Possibly breeds. Fairly common autumn migrant.) 



Single Brooded. Laying season, May and June. 



Breeding area : Northern Nearctic and Palaearctic 

 regions. The Purple Sandpiper breeds in Iceland, the 

 Faroes, Norway, Spitzbergen, and Nova Zembla, on the 

 Taimyr peninsula, and probably the islands off the 

 North Siberian coasts as well as on the coasts of Bering 

 Strait, and across Arctic America to Greenland. 



Breeding habits : The Purple Sandpiper migrates 

 no further than it is compelled, and seldom wanders 

 much south of those coasts that are free from ice during 

 winter. It arrives at its breeding grounds in May or 

 June, according to latitude or local conditions. The 

 favourite nesting haunts of this Sandpiper are rarely 

 situated far from the sea, either in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood of the beach, amongst broken ground covered 

 with scanty herbage, or in marshy districts at the 

 summit of adjoining hills. In the Faroes it breeds on 

 the fells, commencing to do so before the snow has 

 melted from the sheltered hollows and the tops of the 



