PURPLE SANDPIPER. 199 



tenth and eleventh, the tips also are white ; the inner four 

 glossy black, toward the point greyish. The four lateral 

 tail-feathers on each side are ash-grey, the rest greyish-black, 

 all margined with greyish- white. The fore part of the breast 

 and sides is light purplish-grey, like the neck ; the rest of 

 the lower parts white, the sides and lower tail-coverts streaked 

 with grey ; the lower surface of the primary quills grey, as 

 are the outer wing-coverts, the inner being white. 



Length to end of tail 8yV inches ; extent of wings 14^ ; 

 bill along the ridge 1-jV, along the edge of lower mandible 

 1-jV ; wing from flexure 5yV ; tail 2^ ; tarsus ±4,- ; first toe ^, 

 its claw ^-; second toe -yV, its claw ^-; third toe \^, its 

 claw yV ; fourth toe -/j, its claw yV 



Female. — The female is similar to the male, but some- 

 what larger. 



Length to end of tail 9^- inches ; extent of wings 14^ ; 

 bill along the ridge l^V ; tarsus ^4-; middle toe and claw lyV- 



Variations. — The variations exhibited by the plumage 

 in winter arc not remarkable ; but individuals vary con- 

 siderably as to size. The greatest length is nine inches, and 

 the bill frequently measures an inch and a quarter, and I 

 have seen one an inch and five-twelfths long. 



Changes of Plumage. — The moult takes place in 

 autumn, commencing in July, and being completed by the 

 end of November. In spring it is renewed, excepting the 

 quills and tail, and the summer plumage differs in colour 

 from that of winter. As this species does not remain with 

 us in summer, although individuals have been seen in the 

 country at that season, I am obliged to have recourse to skins 

 of foreign specimens for description. 



Male in Summer. — A male, from Winter Island, shot on 

 the 12th June, 1822, has the whole under surface greyish- 

 white, marked with longitudinal streaks of clove-brown, 

 broadest on the fore-part of the breast ; the axillaries white. 

 The upper part of the head is liver-brown, the feathers 



