PURPLE SANDPIPER. 3 



animalculae left oa the sea-weed. It is remarkably tame, and will allow a person 

 to approach it within a few feet." 



Referring to the occurrence of this Sandpiper in summer in Shetland, the 

 late Dr. Saxby writes * : — " A few pairs remain during the breeding season both 

 near the marshes and upon the hills. I have never found the nest myself, but eggs 

 have been brought me from the haunts of the birds exactly resembling authentic 

 specimens of the egg of the Purple Sandpiper ; they are longer than those of the 

 Dunlin, and considerably broader, but very similarly coloured. Early in August 

 I have shot first year's birds upon the shore." 



Messrs. E. Evans and W. Stiurge, in their " Notes on the Birds of Western 

 Spitzbergen, as observed in 1855," write as follows f : — " The Purple Sandpiper 

 {Tringa maritima, Briinn.) was very abundant in Coal Bay (on the south 

 side of Ice Sound, so named on account of a small quantity of poor coal being 

 found there), and we found four of their nests on the high fjeld. Beautiful 

 little nests they were, deep in the ground, and lined with stalks of grass and 

 leaves of the Dwarf Birch [Betula nana, L.), containing mostly four eggs of an 

 olive-green, handsomely mottled with purplish brown, chiefly at the larger end. 

 We watched this elegant little bird — the only one of the Grallatores Ave saw — 

 with much interest, as it waded into some pool of snow-water or ran along the 

 shingle, every now and then raising its wings over its back and exhibiting the 

 delicate tint of the under-side, at the same time uttering its loud shrill whistle." 



Mr. H. Seebohm writes J: — "The eggs of the Purple Sandpiper are four in 

 number and remarkably handsome. They vary in ground-coloirr from pale olive 

 to pale huffish brown, boldly mottled, blotched, and streaked with reddish brown 

 and very dark blackish brown. On some eggs the blotches are large, and chiefly 

 distributed in an oblique direction round the large end ; on others they are more 

 evenly distributed over the entire surface ; and on many a few very dark scratches, 

 spots, or streaks are scattered here and there amongst the brown markings. The 

 underlying markings are numerous and conspicuous, and are pale violet-grey 

 or greyish brown in coloiu-. The eggs vary in length from 1'55 to 1'45 inch, and 

 in breadth from I'l to I'O inch. It is almost impossible to distinguish some eggs 

 of the Purple Sandpiper from certain varieties of those of the Jack Snipe or the 

 Common Snipe ; but on an average the ground-colour of the eggs of the two 



* ' Birds of Shetland,' p. 214. 



t 'Ibis,' 1859, p. 171. 



t ' History of British Birds,' vol. iii. pp. 194, 195. 



H 2 



