192 ORALLY. 



The young birds have a coat of intermediate plumage, 

 which gradually fades off into that of the winter, but 

 returns to the deeper tints of the breeding plumage in the 

 summer. 



The purre is between seven and eight inches in length, 

 and about fifteen in the stretch of the wings. The bill is 

 the same length as the head, and of a black colour ; the legs 

 are dusky, with a greenish tinge. 



In winter, these birds are very abundant upon all the oozy 

 and more humid sandy shores of the country, where they 

 follow the reflux of the sea and pick up their food. They 

 are in small flocks, and when raised they utter a sort of 

 wailing scream, but when they are running and feeding they 

 have a more murmuring note. Numbers of them breed on 

 the shores, and also near some of the inland lakes and marshes 

 in the north of England, and especially in Scotland. As is 

 the case with all the analogous genera, their nests are very 

 rude, merely a shallow cavity scratched in the earth, and 

 lined with a little lint, withered grass, or any other rude but 

 dry vegetable matter that may come in their way. When 

 in good condition, these birds are reckoned palatable and 

 wholesome food. 



THE PURPLE TRINGA (Tringa maritima). 



This species, like the former, certainly breeds in some parts 

 of Britain, though the nest and also the birds during the 

 breeding season have been more rarely seen, and seen on the 

 rocky islets rather than the low banks. 



It is a larger bird than the last species, being between 

 eight and nine inches long, between fifteen and sixteen in the 

 extent of the wings, and two ounces in weight. Its bill is 

 an inch and a quarter long, more tapering to the point, and 

 rather harder than that of the former, of a dull brownish 

 red, except the edges and tip, which are dusky. The tarsi 



