LITTLE-STINT, CURLEW-SANDPIPER, ETC. 475 



the rocks at ebb-tide, watching each retiring wave, running down as 

 the water falls back, picking small shell-fish off the stones, and dis- 

 playing great activity in escaping the advancing sea. 1 The purple- 

 sandpiper is one of the tamest of shore-birds or, as Macgillivray puts 

 it, " one of the most unobservant of man." It is easy of approach 

 even in the depth of winter, when most birds are at their wariest ; even 

 when in company with shy species they show their tameness and 

 seldom join the flight of their more wary companions when disturbed. 3 

 Small parties have been observed huddled together on top of a 

 slippery rock in rough weather seeming to enjoy rather than other- 

 wise the shower-bath of spray which was occasionally dashed over 

 them. 4 There is some evidence that the birds which pass the winter 

 on our shores move north earlier than those that winter farther south. 

 In Plymouth Sound the winter residents were observed to depart on 

 March 14, 1910, and none were seen from that date until April 7th, 

 when a few were seen at intervals up to May 1st. 5 



The purple-sandpiper is comparatively silent, its note has been 

 expressed "weet-wt" 6 or "tee-wit" 1 The winter alarm-note of the 

 curlew-sandpiper is not unlike that of the dunlin, but shorter, less 

 plaintive, and often disyllabic, "tweety tweety tweety tweet-tweet" but 

 sometimes a single long-drawn " tweeze " ; and like some other species 

 the flocks chatter whilst feeding. 8 When on the wing the little-stint 

 utters a highly pitched delicate twitter, " twicky-twick twicky-twick" s 

 This no doubt is the note referred to in Yarrell as a whispering warb- 

 ling trill ; it is stated also in the same work that in autumn, when in 

 flocks, the call-notes resemble the confused chirping of grasshoppers. 10 



1 Macgillivray, British Birds, iv. p. 200. 8 Ibid., p. 201. 



3 Patten, op. tit., p. 307. * Ibid. 

 5 B. 0. C. Migration Report, xxviii., August 1911, p. 177. 



8 Borrer, Birds of Sussex, p. 233. 7 Patten, op. tit., p. 307. 



8 Patten, op. tit., p. 303. 9 Ibid., p. 297. 

 10 Yarrell, British Birds, iii. p. 394. 



