170 



MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



and in immature plumage. They are about the size of Turnstones, and like 

 them are squat and stout. Their bills are, however, decidedly longer, and their 

 legs greenish yellow instead of coral red. They lack distinct markings, the adult 

 being brownish red on throat and breast and dark gray above, while the young 

 are bluish gray above with white throat and belly and gray breast. In flight 

 the rump in neither young nor old is conspicuous, although in the adult it is 

 noticeably lighter than the back. In this respect they differ markedly from the 

 Turnstones with their conspicuous white pattern of rump and back. The wings 

 of the Knot show a faint white line. I have known the young to be mistaken 

 for Purple Sandpipers, but the latter are smaller and darker both on breast and 

 on back and show a conspicuous line on the wings. 



101 [235] Arquatella maritima (Briinn.). 

 Purple Sandpiper; "Rock Snipe"; "Winter Snipe." 



Common winter visitor; (July 30) ; November 1 to April 19 (May 11). 



It is possible that the Purple Sandpipers sometimes come from the north 

 earlier than they are generally supposed to do. The July 30th record is of two 

 birds of this species, shot in 1897, by Mr. A. H. Clark on some rocks off Beverly." 

 In the spring they tarry till the middle of April or later. I shot one on 

 Thatcher's Island on April 19th, 1904, a single bird. A still later date is from 

 a specimen of this species I discovered, not named, in the Peabody Academy 

 collection, dated May nth, 1861, from the Haste Rocks, Salem Harbor, and 

 taken by W. H. Silsbee. This bird, like my own specimen, is in beautiful spring 

 plumage. 



The Purple Sandpiper is devoted to rocky islands, and is only accidentally 

 found anywhere else. It even avoids the rocky shores of the mainland. On 

 November 10th, 1901, in a very strong northwest wind I found and shot one of 

 this species on the upper part of the Ipswich Beach, where it was feeding among 

 the wrack thrown up there. Although I have explored most of the rocky coast 

 of Essex County many times in winter, I have never before this found the Pur- 

 ple Sandpiper on the mainland, and this is the only time I have found it away 

 from rocks. On the rocky islands that are scattered all along the southern 

 shore of the County from Egg Rock, off Nahant, to the Salvages, off Rockport, 

 this bird is to be found. The largest number I ever saw together was on 

 Straitsmouth Island, off the end of Cape Ann, on December 20th, 1903, and 

 an interesting half hour was spent in watching them. A large flock of these 



