6i7 

 PURPLE SANDPIPER. 



Tringa striata {L.). 



Winter visitant to the coast, not uncommon in some seasons. 

 The young arrive in September, the adults in October. Remains as 

 late as April. 



Apparently the first notice of the Purple Sandpiper in this 

 county is in Leyland's Halifax Catalogue (1828), where one 

 is recorded as shot on Ovenden Moor in December 1827. 



In 1844, Thomas Allis wrote : — 



Tringa maritima. — Purple Sandpiper — A specimen was shot on 

 Sowerby Moor in the winter of 1832, and one on Ovenden Moor in 

 1827. A. Strickland observes that this bird generally confines itself 

 to rocky or stony parts of the shore, and is seldom found on the sand, 

 and is to be met with at Filey and other parts of the coast. 



This species is a winter visitant to the coast, and of rather 

 uncertain or irregular appearance, being scarce in some years, 

 while in others it is not uncommon. First to arrive are the 

 young birds in August and September ; one was seen at Spurn 

 on 17th August 1880 by Mr. P. Loten, but the 20th of September 

 is the earliest date on which I have noticed it on the Cleveland 

 coast ; mature birds put in an appearance in October and 

 November. The immature examples arrive in small flocks, 

 the adults generally in pairs, and they are occasionally observed 

 on the sands and muds. At Flamborough, Filey, Scar- 

 borough, and Whitby it is reported as occurring irregularly on 

 the rocky portions of the shores. 



Its favourite resorts at Redcar are the reefs of rocks, 

 or " scars," running out from the shore, which are covered 

 at high tide ; in November 1876 I saw a flock of about a dozen 

 on Salt Scar, and on 13th November 1893 a large flock of 

 forty or fifty on West Scar, from which I secured six with one 

 barrel. At the Tees estuary the species frequents the slag 

 and blocks of concrete forming the sides and ends of the 

 South Gare Breakwater. 



It takes its departure northward in spring, the latest date 

 of its stay being 25th April, when a flock of seven was noted 



