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579 



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 excep- 

 tionally it has even been found inland; but its marked preference 

 is for those rocky shores on which large masses of sea-weed are e.x- 

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

 on the Fame Islands, where they are supposed to have been hatched, 

 while adults have been observed in the Outer Hebrides and other 

 northern localities as late as the end of May ; there is even strong 

 presumptive evidence that the bird nests 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, 

 and I found it, still in small flocks, on May 15th in co. Donegal. 



This species breeds in considerable numbers no further off than 

 the Faeroes, especially on Sandoe ; while in Iceland, Greenland, 

 Spitsbergen, Novaya Zemlya, and throughout the greater part of the 

 Arctic regions, it is the most plentiful of its genus. Owing to the 

 influence of the warm 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 ; while southward, we trace it on passage along the 

 Atlantic sea-board down to Morocco. It may possibly 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 Mediter- 

 ranean it is of unusual occurrence, and M. Alleon has not met with 

 it on the Black Sea. To the east of Novaya Zemlya the low tundras 



