432 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE, 



footing. It, however, appears to take to the water 

 much more readily than most, if not all, of the 

 Sandpipers: Dr. Saxby, writing from Shetland, 

 where he had considerable opportunities of watching 

 these birds, says he has seen a small party wade 

 into a deep pool of salt water and deliberately swim 

 across to the opposite side, a distance of about five 

 feet; and upon another occasion he came upon a 

 small flock, several individuals of which were swim- 

 ming actively about the base of the rock upon 

 which their companions were searching for food.* 



The food of the Purple Sandpiper consists of 

 small shell-fish and marine insects, which it picks 

 up amongst the sea-weed and close to the edge of 

 the water. 



Meyer says the nest is only a hollow place in the 

 ground, lined with a few mosses or other herbage. 



The beak is dark, nearly black, towards the tip, 

 reddish brown towards the base ; irides hazel ; the 

 head and neck dull bluish lead-colour; back and 

 scapulars dark glossy purple, all the feathers tipped 

 and margined with pale lead-grey ;f the rump and 



* 'Zoologist' for 1866 (Second Series, p. 513). 



f One specimen in my collection, killed at Stert Island 

 late in October, has most of the feathers of those parts 

 distinctly margined with white ; the rest, probably the new 

 feathers, margined with the lead-grey; but I can find no 

 trace of the reddish buff margins mentioned by Yarrell as 

 part of the summer plumage. 



