SANDPIPERS 189 



Mr. Popham, while in Siberia, took a nest of the 

 Curlew Sandpiper containing four eggs, and shot the 

 hen bird, on an island at the mouth of the river 

 Yenesei, in July 1897 (P. Z. S., 1897, p. 890, pi. 

 li. ; Ibis, 1898, p. 142). Weight, 2h oz. 



PURPLE SANDPIPER. Tringa maritima, Gmelin.i 

 PI. 21, figs. 3, 4. Length, 8-5 in. ; bill, 1-4 in. ; wing, 

 5-3 in. ; tarsus, 1 in. 



A regular winter visitant, rarely seen between 

 April and September, although it is supposed to 

 breed within the limits of the British Islands, 

 as, for example, in Shetland (cf. Saxby, p. 214). 

 Hitherto, however, the nest has not been dis- 

 covered, though young birds hardly able to fly 

 have been found in the Fame Islands, and I have 

 observed the old ones on the opposite mainland 

 near North Sunderland. One which I shot there 

 so late as the middle of May is preserved in the 

 British Museum collection. 



Messrs. Harvie - Brown and Feilden found the 

 Purple Sandpiper in the Outer Hebrides on the 

 27th of May, and procured several specimens. 

 They were not, however, in full summer plumage. 

 The weight of the bird I shot was 4 oz. 



^ It is clear that the specific name striata, Linn., adopted by the Jbis 

 Committee in their List of British Birds, and by Mr. Saunders in his 

 " Manual," is not applicable to the Purple Sandpiper, but to the Red- 

 shank ; for the words of Linnaeus are, " rectricibus alhis fusco-fasciat-is, 

 remiijibm plurimis alhis; uropijgium album." Evidently, from the 

 barred tail, a Totamis, and not a Tringa. I accordingly retain the 

 name maritima adopted in the earlier edition of tliis Handbook. 



