218 PR.ECOCIAL GRALLATORES — LIMICOLiE. 



gradually lighter to the exterior feather. Lesser and middle wing-coverts bordered terminally with 

 graj'ish white or pale ash ; greater coverts tipped with pure white, forming a distinct bar across 

 the wing ; secondaries narrowly tipped with w-hite and faintly edged with light ashy, the three or 

 four featliers adjoining the tertials mostly white ; primaries with white shafts, the inner quills 

 edged, especially toward the base, with white. Pileuni dusky, streaked with pale grayish buff 

 (these streaks sometimes nearly obsolete) ; a conspicuous superciliary stripe of grayish white, 

 streaked with dusky ; a broad grayish-dusky streaked stripe across the lores, from the bill to 

 and beneath the eye, and continued rather indistinctly over the auriculars ; cheeks, lower part of 

 throat, and foreneck grayish white, streaked with grayish dusky ; chin, and sometimes upper part 

 of throat, unstreaked white; jugiilum similarly but more broadly streaked ; breast grayish white 

 or pale ashy, irregularly spotted W'ith dusky, these spots occupying chiefly the central portion of 

 each feather ; remaining lower parts white, the sides irregularly streaked and spotted with gray- 

 .ish ; crissum narrowly streaked with dusky ; axillars and lining of the wing pure white, the latter 

 bordered externally with grayish. " Bill brown, yellow at base ; tarsi and toes dusky yellow ; iris 

 brown." (Kumlien, MS.) [Bill and legs dusky in dried skins. ^J Winter dress: Above, uniform 

 smoky plumbeous, the scapulars, interscapular.s, rump-feathers, and upper taU-coverts, darker cen- 

 trally, where glossed with purple ; wings and tail as in the summer plumage. Head and neck 

 uniform smoky plumbeous, darker immediately belbre the eye, and, to a less extent, on the crown ; 

 the chin and upper part of throat, lower eyelid, and supraloral space, white ; jugulum and breast 

 light smoky plumbeous, squaniated with white ; remaining lower parts white, the sides broadly 

 streaked with light brownish gray ; crissum with narrow mesial streaks of dusky. Young, first 

 plumage : Above, quite similar to the breeding adult, but the dorsal feathers lacking the lateral 

 ochraceous indentations, and the light borders to the feathers rather more regular, and more 

 creamy in tint, the light borders to the wing-coverts also broader, and pale grayish bufl^ instead of 

 white or ]xile ashy ; nape and cheeks uniform smoky plumbeous ; lower parts much as in the 

 summci- adult. Downy younij : Above, hair-brown, lighter and more grayish on the nape ; the 

 brown irregularly marbled with black ; the wings, back, and rump thickly bespangled with whitish 

 downy flecks on the tips of the down-tufts. Head pale fulvous, variouslj- marked with black, the 

 crown deep hair-brown, variegated with black. Beneath, entirely grayish-white. 



Total length, about 9 inches ; wing, 4.85-5.40 (5.00) ; culmen, 1.10-1.45 (1.20) ; tarsus, .90- 

 l.Oii (.9!)) ; middle toe, .83-. 95 (.90). [E.xtreme and average dimensions of 13 adults.] 



The Purple Sandpiper belongs to l.iotli coiitiiieiits, aud is a bird of somewhat 

 irregtilar distributiou. It is fottiid in high Arctic regions, both in America and on 

 the eastern continent, and yet has been met with in the summer, and apparently 

 breeding, on the Azores. Its occurrence, however, except in high northern regions, 

 is comparatively rare. In Nortli America it appears to be very rare near New 

 York, and entirely unknow'n on the Atlantic coast south of there. I am informed 

 by Mr. Batty, that although quite uncommon on Long Island, occasional stragglers 

 are found there late m winter or early in spring. A single specimen was proctired 

 on Cape Cod, Mass., in full plumage, by Mr. William A. Jeffries, as early as Sept. 

 6, 1877. Though rare in the interior, its presence on oitr Great Lakes, is not wholly 

 unkno\vn. A tine adult male was obtained near Chicago, on tlie lake shore, Nov. 

 7, 1871. It was in company with Sanderlings. This bird was not taken by the 

 British Arctic Expedition of 1875-1876 ; but, according to Dr. Bessels, specimens 

 were procured at Polaris Bay by Captain Hall's party. 



It is not given by Dr. Cooper as found on the Pacific coast. Farther north than 

 California, however, it has been met with. It was taken on the Island of St. Michael's 

 by Mr. Bannister, who states that, in October, 1865, he obtained a number of sjieci- 

 mens of this species at the Eedoubt, where it then appeared to be quite common. In 



' Audubon says : " Bill deep orange, toward tlie end dusky ; edges of eyelids gray ; iris orange ; feet 

 light orange, claws dusky." 



