368 BIRDS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



The Purple Sandpiper, Tringa maritima, is another of 

 these wanderers, which abounds in autumn, and is sold in the 

 market at Boston, but is less common in other parts of the 

 United States. They fly in flocks of eight or ten, avoiding 

 sandy beaches, and alighting on rocky shores ; from which pe- 

 culiarity in their habits, they are sometimes called rock snipes, 

 by the fowlers. Audubon did not find them breeding at Lab- 

 rador, but Dr. Richardson says that they breed abundantly on 

 the shores of Hudson's Bay. 



The Little Sandpiper, Tringa pusilla, which is, as Dr. 

 Brewer informs us, the same with Wilson's Sandpiper, is known 

 by the name of Peep, and is found, in its season, on all the 

 shores and in all the markets of the Union. It goes to the 

 north to breed, like the rest of the tribe ; but returns in the 

 early summer in large flocks, roving from place to place in 

 search of food. Its bill is pointed and flexible ; and in order to 

 collect its fare of worms and insects, the bill is inserted in the 

 mud or wet sand, after the manner of the Avoodcock. This bird 

 leaves us before the fall of the leaf, and passes the winter in 

 distant southern regions. 



The Knot, or Ash-colored Sandpiper, Tringa cinerea, 

 appears on our coast in May, on its way to the north, whence 

 it returns before the end of summer, and is seen in large flocks, 

 collecting small shell fish along the strand, moving with great 

 adroitness under the edge of the waves. The shell fish are 

 swallowed whole ; but the birds grow fat upon them. While 

 thus employed the birds are easily approached ; nor does the 

 fate of those that are shot strike any fear into the survivors. 



The Semipalmated Sandpiper, Tringa semipalmata, is 

 sometimes confounded with the peep, with which it often as- 

 sociates ; but is obviously distinguished from it by its half- 

 webbed feet. This habit of keeping company with other birds 

 has prevented accurate observation of its periods. Wilson says 

 that it arrives and departs with the sanderling, and associates 



