PURPLE OR ROCK SANDPIPER. 237 



Penn. Purple or Rock Tringa, or Sandpiper of 

 British authors. We do not consider this Tringa 

 as a very numerous species on our coasts, though, 

 at certain seasons, in winter and spring, they may 

 generally be met with where the shore is rocky, 

 and particularly if it possesses long ridges of crag 

 jutting out into the sea. The parties generally 

 consist of four or five, the amount of the brood ; 

 but these at times assemble or congregate into flocks 

 of considerable numbers. Such have been our own 

 observations on the coasts of the south of Scotland 

 and north of England ; and Mr. Thompson states it 

 to be u a local species, rather rare in Ireland,"* at 

 the same time we have other authorities. Thus, Mr. 

 Dann says, " the Purple Sandpiper is very nume- 

 rous in Orkney and Shetland, appearing early in 

 spring, and leaving again at the latter end of April, 

 about which time it collects in large flocks." Our 

 information relative to its breeding in this country 

 is very limited ; Mr. Selby met with a family on the 

 Fern Islands, which were scarcely able to fly. Mr. 

 Rodd also communicated to Mr. Yarrell that he had 

 killed them in Cornwall both in winter and sum- 

 mer ;t and we once met with a pair of Purple Sand- 

 pipers on the Bass Rock at a time when all the 

 other inhabitants had young; but, like the other 

 birds of this and allied genera which are known to 

 breed in northern latitudes, those which remain, and, 

 as it were, accidentally breed with us, can only be 

 considered as the very limit of the range, or as hap- 

 * Thompson's M.S.S. t Yarrell, ii. p. 666. 



