T R I N G A. 



813 



They have sometimes been confounded with the 

 sandpipers, and they are certainly near neighbours to 

 these birds, but still there is a line of distinction be- 

 tween them. 



The tringas are more aquatic than the sandpipers ; 

 that is, they seek their food on more soft and humid 

 surfaces, although they neither wade nor swim. Their 

 bills are about the same length as the head, slender, 

 straight, or but very slightly curved, flexible in its 

 whole length, while that of the sandpipers is flexible 

 in the basal half only. The tip enlarged and smooth, 

 channelled to the tip, and the nostrils pierced in the 

 channels. In its character, and it is the organ from 

 which we can best judge of the habits of the birds, it 

 is intermediate between the bill of the sandpipers and 

 that of the snipes more sentient than the former, 

 and less so than the latter. Their tarsi are of mode- 

 rate length ; and the feet have four toes, three to the 

 front and one to the rear. The front toes are very 

 slightly bordered with membrane ; and the hind toe 

 is small and articulated higher on the tarsus than the 

 front toes. They are not such swift runners as the 

 sandpipers, neither can they glide through tall herb- 

 age with the same adroitness as the snipes ; but still 

 they are rather clever birds upon their legs. They 

 are also well-winged birds, and have much command 

 of themselves in the air, either in forward flight or in 

 whirling and doubling. 



Over the temperate and the cold latitudes, the 

 tringas are pretty generally distributed ; and, though 

 they are not so decidedly migrant for long distances 

 in latitudes as many other birds, they seldom summer 

 and winter in exactly the same locality. As is the 

 case with many other birds which are conspicuous 

 enough when not in the breeding season, the breed- 

 ing places of many of the tringas have not been well 

 ascertained. They are subject to considerable differ- 

 ences of colour too ; and this has sometimes caused 

 one species to be described as two. Our limits will 

 permit of our noticing the mere outlines of the British 

 species only. 



THE PURRE OR DUNLIN (T. variaUlis}. This bird 

 is well entitled to the epithet variabilis, from the 

 great .difference between its summer and its win- 

 ter plumage. It is the " purre " in winter, and the 

 "dunlin" in summer. 



The winter dress is the one in which it is most fre- 

 quently seen on the shores, and it continues there 

 and in that dress for a very considerable portion of 

 the year. In. this winter dress, in which it appears 

 on the coast, and especially on the south coast of 

 Britain, for great part of the year, it has the top of 

 the head, the back of the neck, the back, and the 

 scapulars, ashen-grey clouded with brown, and the 

 shafts of the feathers dusky black ; the wing-coverts 

 are blackish brown, with the margins grey, and the 

 tips of the larger coverts whitish ; the rump and 

 upper coverts of the tail are brown, margined with a 

 lighter shade of the same colour ; the middle tail 

 feathers brown, and the lateral ones grey with whitish 

 shafts ; the tail is slightly wedge-shaped, the middle 

 feathers being the longest, but the external lateral 

 ones have the broadest webs. The under parts are 

 white, with the exception of the foreneck and breast, 

 which are grey with brown shafts to the feathers. 

 This plumage is, however, not the same at all times 

 of the winter ; and it is also paler in very severe win- 

 ters than in mild and open one?. 



In summer, or in that state in which it is the 



" dunlin," the upper parts are blackish or black, with 

 red-brown margins to the feathers, and the rump and 

 tail coverts are brownish black ; the cheeks, foreneck, 

 and breast, are black, with white margins to the fea- 

 thers, and the rest of the under part of the body be- 

 comes wholly black ; the chin is as white as in the 

 winter, and the flanks are also white, but streaked 

 with longitudinal lines of black ; the quills and coverts 

 are nearly the same at all seasons. The first plumage 

 of the young birds is intermediate between the winter 

 and the summer plumages of the adults ; but it fades 

 into the pale colour in the winter, and regains the 

 dark against the next summer. 



The length of these birds is from seven to eight 

 inches, and the stretch of the wings is very nearly 

 double the length ; the bill is black, and the feet and 

 toes are dusky green. 



In winter they assemble in small parties, following 

 the tide, on the oozy shores and banks of the lower 

 estuaries near the sea. When undisturbed they run 

 rather swiftly, and utter a sort of murmuring note ; 

 but when they are alarmed and forced to the wing, 

 they utter a querulous and wailing scream. From 

 the* short time that they are absent from our shores, 

 it is not probable that many of them leave the country 

 in the breeding season ; though some appear to move 

 northward within the country, and others to the bor- 

 ders of the inland lakes. In the breeding time, how- 

 ever, they are solitary ; that is, they are in single 

 pairs, and they are comparatively silent. They have 

 very rude nests, only a little scratch in the dry sur- 

 face, in which a few vegetable fibres are placed. 



PURPLE TRINGA (T. purpurea]. This is rather 

 a larger bird, rather more than an inch larger in the 

 body, but not larger in the wings, so that it is not 

 quite so well adapted for flight as the other. The 

 bill is longer, harder, and more pointed at the tip ; 

 its general colour is a dull dusky red, with the tip 

 and the edges of the mandibles black. The tarsi are 

 shorter in proportion than in the preceding species, 

 and the toes are a little more free to their bases. 

 They are the same dull red as the bill, but the claws, 

 which are quite blunt, are dusky. 



The plumage varies with the seasons ; and as the 

 winter plumage is that in which it is most commonly 

 seen in Britain, we shall mention it, and notice the 

 changes that take place in the summer. At that 

 season, the head and neck are dusky black ; the rest 

 of the upper parts black, with reflections of purple ; 

 and the upper part of the back and the scapulars 

 with ash-coloured margins to the feathers. Four 

 feathers in the middle of the tail are of the same 

 colour as the lower part of the back ; but the re- 

 maining ones are ash colour. The wings are black, 

 with a little white on the tips of the coverts, small 

 white margins to the primary quills, and some of the 

 secondaries nearly white. The under part white, 

 with stripes of black on the breast, sides, and flanks. 

 In summer, the upper part of the breast is grey, and 

 the sides of the same black ; the bill and feet also 

 bloom to a bright reddish orange. This species is 

 found on the shores of the Atlantic and the Mediter- 

 ranean, and on the American side of the former as 

 well as upon the European side. Its nest is rather 

 rare in Britain ; and the bird is by no means a very 

 abundant one, even in the winter. It frequents more 

 stony places of the shores than the variable tringa, 

 and its chief food is understood to consist of the small 

 Crustacea and mollusca abounding on stony shores. 



