PURPLE SANDPIPER. G63 
little moss or other herbage for a lining. It is built. on 
mountains among small pools of water, in the middle of a 
clump of grass. 
The eggs are four in number. They are of a pyriform 
shape, of a yellowish grey colour, with small irregular spots 
of pale brown, crowded at the obtuse end and rare at the 
other. They appear to be laid at the end of June, or 
beginning of July. 
The plumage of this species is close, soft, and rather downy; 
it is said to become thicker in winter. Male; length, eight 
inches and a quarter, or a little over; bill, bright orange 
yellow, slender, s slightly curved and tapering towards the point; 
in winter the orange fades, and the tip becomes dusky, and 
the orange dull red; “oe dusky; over the eyes is a white streak 
—the eyelids greyish white; forehead, white. Head on the 
crown, reddish brown on the margins of the feathers, their 
centres black, reflecting different metallic colours according to 
the light in which they are viewed; in winter uniform leaden 
grey; chin, white; throat, dull greyish white, and spotted 
with dusky streaks; breast above, dark greyish ash-colour, 
inclining to pale brown, with dusky spots spreading out from 
the shafts, the side, edges, and tips white in many of the 
feathers; below, the breast is more white, the spots being 
smaller and lengthened out towards the tail; in winter white, 
with an occasional streak of grey. The back has the feathers 
black in the centre, and reddish brown round their edges, 
exhibiting also varied metallic lustres in different lights; in 
winter, blackish leaden grey with a purple reflection. 
Greater wing coverts, dusky greyish black deeply tipped 
with white, in winter cee greyish white, forming a bar 
across the wing; lesser wing coverts, dusky black, less tipped 
with white, or not at all; primaries, dusky black, the shafts 
white, the outer narrow web of each feather darker than the 
broad inner one; secondaries, tipped with white, some of them 
almost wholly white, forming a bar across the wing when 
opened; tertiaries, bluish black edged with reddish brown, and 
with a variety of metallic tints according to the light, their 
tips white; in winter a leaden grey hue prevails, and the 
edges also are greyish white as well as the tips. The tail, 
wedge-shaped, has the four middle feathers long and pointed, 
brownish or greyish black with rufous yellow edges, the others 
grey brown with dusky cinereous edges, in all twelve in 
number; upper tail coverts, almost black, in winter leaden 
