Purple Sandpiper. 439 



it was supposed never to come inland. Wherefore the arrival of 

 a specimen in the heart of Wiltshire, at Everleigh Rectory, on 

 February 3rd, 1881 (as I learn from Mr. Grant, who received it 

 in the flesh and preserved it), must be looked upon as the single 

 exception which proves the rule. By the B.O.U. Committee the 

 name maritima is now abandoned in favour of striata the 

 ' striped ' which was undoubtedly the name under which it was 

 described by Latham and Gmelin. It is readily to be distinguished 

 from all its congeners by its dark purple or bluish lead colour. 

 Hence provincially it is the 'Black Sandpiper'; in France^ 

 B&asseau violet, and in Sweden, Svart-grd Strand-Vipa. 

 When the spring arrives it departs for the highest latitudes, 

 having been found to breed in the most northern districts of 

 Europe and America in Greenland, Spitzbergen (where it was 

 said to be the only species of the Grallatores seen), and in Nova 

 Zembla, as well as in Davis Straits, Baffin's Bay, Melville Island, 

 and the shores of Hudson's Bay. Sir R. Payne-Gallwey, who 

 reports that they are numerous in some districts in Ireland, says 

 ' they are so tame you may pelt them with stones, and they will 

 not rise, but merely trot farther off. It is common to see them 

 running about or sitting huddled upon the rocks at the verge of 

 a lashing sea. Each wave looks as if it must overwhelm them ; 

 but no ! they judge their distance to a nicety, or stick like 

 limpets to the rock, amid the spray and foam.'* 



RALLIM; (THE RAILS). 



We are now approaching the more essentially aquatic birds, 

 and there are several characteristics in the family of Rails which 

 lead on to the true Water-fowl. Thus their bodies are more 

 compressed and boat-shape, and most of them can swim with 

 ease. Their legs are shorter and their feet larger, and with the 

 hind toe more developed than in the preceding family. Their 

 beaks, too, are much harder and stronger, and some of them are 

 furnished with a narrow membrane on the sides of the toes, 

 which is the first approach towards a web- foot. They are, for 

 ' The Fowler in Ireland,' p. 243. 



