THE PURRE. 69 



white, barred and spotted with black and pale ferru* 

 ginous ; tail-coverts, white, elegantly barred with black ; 

 wings, plain dusky, black towards the extremity ; the 

 greater coverts, tipt with white; shafts of the pri- 

 maries, white; tail, pale ashy olive, finely edged with 

 white, the two middle feathers somewhat the longest; 

 belly and vent, white, the latter marked with small 

 arrow-heads of black; legs and feet, black; toes, 

 bordered with a narrow membrane; eye, small and 

 black. 



In some specimens, both of males and females, the 

 red on the breast was much paler, in others it descended 

 as far as the thighs. Both sexes seemed nearly alike. 



221. TRINGA CINCLUS THE PURRE. 



WILSON, PLATE LVII. FIG. III. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 



THIS is one of the most numerous of our strand birds, 

 as they are usually called, that frequent the sandy beach 

 on the frontiers of the ocean. In its habits it differs 

 so little from the preceding, that, except in being still 

 more active and expert in running and searching among 

 the sand, on the reflux of the waves, as it nimbly darts 

 about for food, what has been said of the former will 

 apply equally to both, they being pretty constant 

 associates on these occasions. 



The purre continues longer with us, both in spring 

 and autumn, than either the turnstone or the ash- 

 coloured sandpiper ; many of them remain during the 

 very severest of the winter, though the greater part 

 retire to the more genial regions of the south, where 

 I have seen them at such seasons, particularly on the 

 sea coasts of both Carolinas, during the month of 

 February, in great numbers. 



These birds, in conjunction with several others, 

 sometimes collect together in such flocks, as to seem, 

 at a distance, a large cloud of thick smoke, varying in 

 form and appearance every instant, while it performs 

 its evolutions in air. As this cloud descends and courses 



