9130 Birds. 
the bird, and found in its mouth a small roundish stone, partly covered 
with a minute vegetable substance, which also grew in great abund- 
ance upon every stone beneath the slowly trickling water. A large 
quantity of the same substance was present in the stomach and ceso- 
phagus, and more of it was thickly entangled in the double row of 
papillae upon the palate. I afterwards shot two more of the same 
species, which were similarly engaged. This certainly looks very much 
as if the papilla, assisted by those at the base of the tongue, acted 
together as a kind of rasp. The familiarity of these birds often enables 
me to approach them within the distance of a few feet, and sometimes 
in the dusk of the evening I have succeeded in creeping up even closer 
than usual; at such times I have heard another very peculiar sound, 
resembling the loud, regular ticking of a watch. At first it seemed 
likely that it proceeded from the bursting of a succession of air-bubbles 
as they ascended from the hidden inhabitant of one of the pools of 
water near at hand, but afterwards, hearing it when the bird was 
standing upon a piece of dry ground, some, distance inland, my 
opinion was altered. The purple sandpiper is an excellent swimmer. 
I once saw one upon some stones near the edge of the Loch of Cliff, 
and upon my approach it flew for several yards, and then quietly 
alighted in deep water. Upon another occasion I saw one of 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. Occasionally 
when sailing close inshore I have come suddenly upon a small flock, 
several individuals of which were swimming actively about the base of 
the rock upon which their companions were busily searching for food. 
I never saw one dive except when it was wounded. Purple sand- 
pipers seldom appear here in anything like a large flock, but are 
usually found in small parties of perhaps a dozen or thereabouts, 
either by themselves or in company with other birds of similar habits, 
such as turnstones, ringed plovers, dunlins or oystercatchers. In fine 
weather they mostly frequent such rocks as can supply them with small 
shell-fish. They are less active at high water, when their feeding- 
places are covered, and at that time they loiter about the rocks, as 
though waiting for the tide to fall. Their habit of keeping to the sea- 
ward side of the rocks often renders it difficult for a person upon the 
land to discover them. This species shows such little fear of man, 
that it is usually difficult to alarm them, provokingly so sometimes 
when one wishes to obtain a shot, and the bird, refusing to rise, stands 
quietly with its head on one side, as though it were highly amused 
at such an amount of “ clucking” and gesticulation on the part of the 
a 
