CHARADRIID.T.. 



593 



THE PURPLE SANDPIPER. 



Tringa striata, Linnaeus. 



The Purple Sandpiper is widely distributed along the coast of 

 Great Britain from September until the following spring, and 

 exceptionally it has even been found inland ; but its marked prefer- 

 ence is for rocky shores on which large masses of sea-weed are 

 exposed at low water. Young, scarcely able to fly, have been 

 obtained on the Fame Islands, while adults have been observed in 

 the Outer Hebrides and other northern localities as late as the middle 

 of June ; and there may be justification for the presumption that the 

 bird has nested on the high ground in the Shetlands, though identified 

 eggs have not yet been obtained. On the rugged portions of the 

 Irish coast it is met with in winter, as well as in small flocks on the 

 spring migration until far on in May. 



This species breeds in considerable numbers no further off than 

 the Fseroes, especially on Sandoe ; and in Iceland, Greenland, 

 Spitsbergen, Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya it is more or 

 less plentiful. Owing to the influence of the Gulf Stream, it is 

 resident or only partially migratory on the coast of Norway, and is 

 even found on the shores of Sweden during winter, though not 

 common at any season far up the Baltic; southward it can be traced 

 on passage along the Atlantic sea-board down to Morocco ; and 

 there is a surmise that it may nest high up in the mountains on 

 some of the Azores, as Mr. Godman shot a male in full summer- 

 plumage in June on Flores. In the Mediterranean it is of unusual 

 occurrence, while M. Alleon did not meet with it on the Black Sea. 

 To the east of Novaya Zemlya the low tundras of Arctic Siberia are 



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