182 BIRD NAMES. [No. 53. 



(Raymond L. Newcomb) tells of its being known in the vicinity 

 of Gloucester, Mass., as SIMPLETON ; and F. C. Browne gives 

 STIB in his list of gunners' names at Plymouth Bay (Forest and 

 Stream, Nov. 9, 1876). 



At Pine Point, Me., Seaford, L. L, and Pleasantville (Atlan- 

 tic Co.), N. J., FALL SNIPE; in Massachusetts at Chatham, 

 CROOKED -BILLED SNIPE; at West Barnstable, CALIFORNIA- 

 PEEP ; at Newport, R. I., and in New Jersey at Tuckerton and 

 Atlantic City, WINTER SNIPE;* at Stratford, Conn., and Shinne- 

 cock Bay, L. L, LITTLE BLACK-BREAST ; at Seaford, L. L, in 

 New Jersey at Tuckerton, Pleasantville, above mentioned, At- 

 lantic City, Cape May C. H., Cape May City, and Cobb's Island, 

 Va., BLACK-BREAST (see Nos. 55, 56) ; at Shinnecock Bay, LEAD- 

 BACK ; in New Jersey at Barnegat and Tuckerton, BRANT- 

 SNIPE ; and at Atlantic City, BRANT-BIRD (see Nos. 54, 60, 61). 

 The gunners of the last-named localities claim that this little 

 sandpiper is more closely associated than other birds with the 

 Brant (No. 3) ; is more often found with the latter species on 

 sandbars, sea-weed bunches, etc. 



* This name is also applied to the Purple Sandpiper, Tringa maritima, a 

 bird which comes down from the North in cold weather, is never seen by us 

 before late autumn nor after the early spring, and whose appearance at this 

 time may be briefly described as follows : very dark brownish slate color, 

 showing purplish gloss in certain lights; belly white; length nine inches, or 

 thereabouts ; extent fifteen to sixteen inches ; bill about one and a quarter 

 inches, and nearly straight. Perhaps it would have been better to include 

 this sandpiper more formally in my list, but it is practically an unknown 

 bird to other of our gunners than those of New England (though occasion- 

 ally found on the Great Lakes and elsewhere). The isolated bits of rocky 

 coast which it inhabits are not inviting during wintry weather, and the bird 

 is fallen in with generally by accident, for gunners are not on the lookout 

 for shore-bird shooting at such times. Mr. George A. Boardman (cited by 

 Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway), states that T. maritima is the Winter-snipe at 

 Calais, Me. ; and Mr. William Brewster tells me of its being so termed at 

 Swamscott, Mass. I have heard it called Winter Rock-bird at Ash Point, 

 Me. (the gunners there usually finding it at Green Island, ten miles south- 

 ward) ; and it is the Rock -bird, Rock Plover, and Rock Snipe at Rowley 

 and Salem, Mass. 



