CHARADRIID&. 593 
THE PURPLE SANDPIPER. 
TRINGA sSTRIATA, Linnzeus. 
The Purple Sandpiper is widely distributed along the coast of 
Great Britain from September until the following spring, and 
exceptionally it has even been found inland; but its marked prefer- 
ence is for rocky shores on which large masses of sea-weed are 
exposed at low water. Young, scarcely able to fly, have been 
obtained on the Farne Islands, while adults have been observed in 
the Outer Hebrides and other northern localities as late as the middle 
of June ; and there may be justification for the presumption that the 
bird has nested on the high ground in the Shetlands, though identified 
eggs have not yet been obtained. On the rugged portions of the 
Irish coast it is met with in winter, as well as in small flocks on the 
spring migration until far on in May. 
This species breeds in considerable numbers no further off than 
the Feeroes, especially on Sandoe; and in Iceland, Greenland, 
Spitsbergen, Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya it is more or 
less plentiful. Owing to the influence of the Gulf Stream, it is 
resident or only partially migratory on the coast of Norway, and is 
even found on the shores of Sweden during winter, though not 
common at any season far up the Baltic; southward it can be traced 
on passage along the Atlantic sea-board down to Morocco; and 
there is a surmise that it may nest high up in the mountains on 
some of the Azores, as Mr. Godman shot a male in full summer- 
plumage in June on Flores. In the Mediterranean it is of unusual 
occurrence, while M. Alléon did not meet with it on the Black Sea. 
To the east of Novaya Zemlya the low tundras of Arctic Siberia are 
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