502 THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



292. Purple Sandpiper [MEERSTRANDLAUFER]. 

 TRINGA MARITIMA, Briinnich. 1 



Heligolandish : Kanelk. Name, the meaning of which cannot be traced. 



Tringa maritime. Naumann, vii. 467. 



Purple Sandpiper. Dresser, vii. 69. 



Becasseau violet. Teinminck, Manuel, ii. 619, iv. 404. 



This species is almost exclusively a winter visitor to the island. 

 I have only obtained it once or twice in spring plumage ; in the 

 last of these cases I found two examples at the foot of the cliff, one 

 of which I shot. On a later occasion I obtained another solitary 

 specimen, and a few years ago two examples were again observed. 

 During the winter months groups of from five to fifteen individuals 

 are met with on the rocks and stones overgrown with sea-tang, 

 which project above the water at the foot of the cliff; these birds 

 are invariably old individuals in which the feathers of the 

 head and back are nearly black with purplish reflections, which 

 gives the bird a singularly beautiful appearance. Young autumn 

 birds with the feathers of the upper parts edged with light borders, 

 occur as stragglers at the end of August and September ; these, 

 strange to say, frequent the gravelly shingle and sea-tang which 

 are found intermingled on the long southern point of the dune. 

 Neither old nor young birds are met with on the Upper Plateau. 

 This bird displays little shyness, and may be approached within 

 gunshot range either in a boat or on foot. 



It does not breed so far north as the preceding; neverthe- 

 less its nesting range embraces Greenland, Spitzbergen, Nova 

 Zembla, the Taimyr Peninsula, and the other Arctic coasts of Asia, 

 as well as Arctic America. On the south, Ireland, the Faroes, 

 Orkneys and Shetlands appear to form the limits of its breeding 

 range. 



Quite contrary to the behaviour of the preceding species, 

 T. maritima appears to adhere most obstinately to its northern 

 home, not allowing even the inclemency of an Arctic winter to 

 drive it into more genial latitudes. According to Collett (Norges 

 Fuglefauna) countless flocks may be met with through the whole 

 of the winter, not only along the northern coast of Norway, but also 

 along the whole coast of Finmark. Few old birds probably ex- 

 tend their journey beyond the southern coast of the North Sea, 

 and the stragglers which have been met with at the Mediterranean 

 were probably, without exception, young birds of the year in 

 autumn plumage (or after the moult). 



1 Tringa striata, Linn. 



