BIRDS. 217 



below the size of a Whaup is massed together under the phrase 

 'one of those sma' birdies/ and is taken no notice of by the 

 natives." 



"The said 'sma' birdies,' that I saw, consisted of large flocks 

 of Ringed Plover, with, rather to my astonishment, only quite a 

 few Dunlins, perhaps one in a hundred. . . . Two Stints (I believe), 

 together with a number of Ringed Plover feeding in a kind of 

 muddy swamp just above high water ; another feeding on the 

 edge of the receding tide. These three birds were, I think, 

 only wild through being in company with those wretched 

 Ringed Plover. The one I did shoot I managed to separate, 

 and then it was quite tame." 



Tringa striata (L.). Purple Sandpiper. 



From the letters of some of our correspondents this species would 

 seem to be considered by them only an occasional visitant to 

 Orkney. On January 30th, 1845, the late Mr. Ranken killed 

 eight at one shot from a mixed flock of Dunlins, Turnstones, 

 and Ring Dotterel. Mr. Moodie-Heddle killed them at Mel- 

 setter in 1867,, and has not seen any since. 



When in Rousay in 1883 we considered the Purple Sand- 

 piper as the most abundant of all the small waders, and it may 

 be from its habit of always sitting on stones or rocks, and 

 never, or at least very rarely, on sand or mud, that it is less 

 noticed and killed by the shore gunner. Dunn notes it as com- 

 mon in the Orkneys, which agrees with our own observations. 



Amongst a few birds that we saw in the house of Mr. 

 Lennie, birdstuffer, Kettletoft, Sanday, was a Purple Sand- 

 piper, and we also picked up a wing of one of these birds on 

 the same island. 



Mr. Millais has observed this species about the Black Craig, 

 Stromness, as late as the end of June. 



Under date of November 25th, 1889, Mr. Monteith-Ogilvie 

 writes us : 



"Flights of Purple Sandpipers keep coming in from the 

 east, as that seems to be where they are coming from. There 

 were comparatively only a few that I saw about the shores till 



