PTTBPLE SANDPIPER. 63 



little moss or other herbage for a lining. It is built on 

 mountains among small pools of water, in the middle of a 

 clump of grass. 



The eggs are four in number. They are of a pyriform 

 shape, of a yellowish grey colour, with small irregular spots 

 of pale brown, crowded at the obtuse end and rare at the 

 other. They appear to be laid at the end of June, or 

 beginning of July. 



The plumage of this species is close, soft, and rather downy; 

 it is said to become thicker in winter. Male; length, eight 

 inches and a quarter, or a little over; bill, bright orange 

 yellow, slender, slightly curved and tapering towards the point; 

 in winter the orange fades, and the tip becomes dusky, and 

 the orange dull red; iris, dusky; over the eyes is a white streak 

 the eyelids greyish white; forehead, white. Head on the 

 crown, reddish brown on the margins of the feathers, their 

 centres black, reflecting different metallic colours according to 

 thq light in which they are viewed; in winter uniform leaden 

 grey; chin, white; throat, dull greyish white, and spotted 

 with dusky streaks; breast above, dark greyish ash-colour, 

 inclining to pale brown, with dusky spots spreading out from 

 the shafts, the side, edges, and tips white in many of the 

 feathers; below, the breast is more white, the spots being 

 smaller and lengthened out towards the tail; in winter white, 

 with an occasional streak of grey % The back has the feathers 

 black in the centre, and reddish brown round their edges, 

 exhibiting also varied metallic lustres in different lights; in 

 winter, blackish leaden grey with a purple reflection. 



Greater wing coverts, dusky greyish black deeply tipped 

 with white, in winter with greyish white, forming a bar 

 across the wing; lesser wing coverts, dusky black, less tipped 

 with white, or not at all; primaries, dusky black, the shafts 

 white, the outer narrow web of each feather darker than the 

 broad inner one; secondaries, tipped with white, some of them 

 almost wholly white, forming a bar across the wing when 

 opened; tertiaries, bluish black edged with reddish brown, and 

 with a variety of metallic tints according to the light, their 

 tips white; in winter a leaden grey hue prevails, and the 

 edges also are greyish white as well as the tips. The tail, 

 wedge-shaped, has the four middle feathers long and pointed, 

 brownish or greyish black with rufous yellow edges, the others 

 grey brown with dusky cinereous edges, in all twelve in 

 number; upper tail coverts, almost black, in winter leaden 



