234 THE BIRDS OF IONA AND MULL. 



The Purple or Rock Sandpiper. 



This is a much heavier looking bird than the other sandpipers, and is 

 much more inert in his habits. They are always found creeping about 

 on the rocks close to the wash of the surf, looking more like mice than 

 birds, and when approached skulk or cower down upon the seaweed, 

 where the colour is dark and something of the same shade as their 

 own feathers, and they will allow themselves to be pelted with stones 

 before they will fly. Though usually going in small parties of half a 

 dozen or so, they may occasionally be met with in large flocks, resting 

 at high-water upon an isolated rock with the sea breaking around it, 

 and sometimes over them, and here they cluster together so thick as 

 to cover the crest of the rock. When approached by boat they only 

 huddle closer together, trying to creep out of sight and to hide them- 

 selves behind one another, and it is only at a very near approach that, 

 with a feeble remonstrative pipe, they all take wing together, fly off 

 in a compact mass, tack in again and alight on a similar rock at no 

 great distance, tumbling and fluttering over each other as they alight 

 in a dense body. If disturbed a second time they repeat the same 

 manoeuvre, often pitching again on the same rock they were first 

 disturbed from. Of course a good many may be shot at such times, 

 and then they all go into the omniverous ])ot, by which I mean served 

 up roasted along with the rest of their tribe which have been bagged 

 the same day, and very dainty morsels we thought them too. In 

 summer they have nearly all disappeared, but some pairs seem to 

 linger even then on some of the outlying islands, and in May and 

 June, when visiting some of the more distant and lonely skerries in 

 pursuit of gull's eggs, I have been received at the slippery and 

 dangerous landing place by a couple of quiet little rock sandpipers, 

 who then have bright orange yellow legs and bills — ochreous-yellow 

 at the base — and altogether are more spruce looking than when last 

 seen in winter. 



The Turnstone. 



Is like the last, abundant through the winter months, feeding 

 busily among the pebbles and gravel on the seashore, though not 

 quite so bustling and active as the tring:e. At high-water they repose 

 in small flocks on the rocks above high-water mark, and I have seen 



