PURPLE SANDPIPER. 325 



THE PURPLE SANDPIPER. 



T RING A MARITIMA. 



WHEREVER the shore is rocky, but not shut in by precipitous 

 cliffs, the Purple Sandpiper is met with in small flocks. Generally 

 these restless groups may be seen close to the water's edge trying 

 to find a footing on some little boulder, as if the perch were not 

 large enough to hold them all. The birds, therefore, may always 

 be identified by their curious crowding movements, even at a 

 considerable distance, either when the tide is flowing or receding 

 the rockpipers, as they may with propriety be called, always 

 exhibiting a fear of wetting their feet by fluttering upwards as the 

 waves momentarily cover the stone. I recollect one evening 

 meeting with a considerable flock of Purple Sandpipers near 

 Dunbar, in somewhat interesting circumstances; and the following 

 extract from one of my note books will perhaps better illustrate 

 their habits, as observed by myself, than if put in another form: 

 "November 3d while lying crouched behind the skerries this 

 evening about twilight, waiting a shot at some scaup ducks, there 

 suddenly arose a confused though not unmusical babbling within a 

 few yards of where I lay concealed. On looking cautiously over 

 the ledge which inclined seawards, I found a flock of Purple Sand- 

 pipers had pitched on a half-submerged boulder, the lower part of 

 which the back-going tide was gradually exposing. As soon as the 

 birds could safely get at the base of the stone, they flew down to 

 a part of the skerry, and then waded quickly to it as if eager to 

 get at the small animals, on which they soon began to regale them- 

 selves. Shortly afterwards the stone was left nearly dry; still the 

 Sandpipers diligently pursued their pecking until the supply was 

 exhausted, when they came running back to the flat rocks in my 

 direction. They then halted a little, uncertain apparently what to 

 do, and stood within two ramrod lengths of the rock on which I sat. 

 Beginning again, they proceeded to search the small crevices in the 

 rock, running hither and thither with amusing eagerness, and some- 

 times coming right up the slope to within a few inches of my face. 

 There were, as near as I could compute, sixty-five or seventy birds 

 altogether; and, as I had never seen so large a flock of Purple 

 Sandpipers before, I looked upon them with great interest. Not 

 wishing to disturb the ducks, which were now pushing landwards 



