432 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
footing. It, however, appears to take to the water 
much more readily than most, if not all, of the 
Sandpipers: Dr. Saxby, writing from Shetland, 
where he had considerable opportunities of watching 
these birds, says he has seen a small party wade 
into a deep pool of salt water and deliberately swim 
across to the opposite side, a distance of about five 
feet; and upon another occasion he came upon a 
small flock, several individuals of which were swim- 
ming actively about the base of the rock upon 
which their companions were searching for food.* 
Vhe food of the Purple Sandpiper consists of 
small shell-fish and marine insects, which it picks 
up amongst the sea-weed and close to the edge of 
the water. 
Meyer says the nest is only a hollow place in the 
ground, lined with a few mosses or other herbage. 
The beak is dark, nearly black, towards the tip, 
reddish brown towards the base; irides hazel; the 
head and neck dull bluish lead-colour; back and 
scapulars dark glossy purple, all the feathers tipped 
and margined with pale lead-grey;+ the rump and 
* * Zoologist’ for 1866 (Second Series, p. 513). 
+ One specimen in my collection, killed at Stert Island 
late in October, has most of the feathers of those parts 
distinctly margined with white; the rest, probably the new 
feathers, margined with the lead-grey; but I can find no 
trace of the reddish buff margins mentioned by Yarrell as 
part of the summer plumage. 
