268 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



PURPLE SANDPIPER (ArqiMtella maritima maritima). 

 Common or local names: Winter Snipe; Rock-snipe; Rook-bird; Rock-plover. 



Length. — About 9 inclies; bill 1.40. 



Adult in Winter. — Above very dark gray or bluish ash, with purple or 

 violet reflections, each feather of back and wing with a lighter border; 

 throat and breast bluish ash; belly, under side of wing and wing bar 

 white; sides and upper breast streaked or spotted with dark gray; legs, 

 feet and base of bill orange or yellow, rest of bill blackish. 



Adult in Spring. — Similar, but with a general rusty tinge above. 



Young. — Similar; feathers of back light tipped; under parts mottled with 

 ashy and dusky. 



Season. — A not uncommon winter visitant on rocky islands coastwise; 

 September to April. Dr. C. W. Townsend gives July 30 and May 11 

 as unusual dates in Essex County, Mass. 



Range. — Northern parts of northern hemisphere, mainly. Breeds in high 

 latitudes; in North America, chiefly in northeastern parts, from Mel- 

 ville Island, EUesmere Land and northern Greenland south to Melville 

 Peninsula, Cumberland Sound and southern Greenland; winters from 

 southern Greenland and New Brunswick to Long Island, N. Y.; casual 

 to the Great Lakes, Georgia, Florida and Bermuda, and in the eastern 

 hemisphere south to Great Britain and the Mediterranean. 



History. 

 This bird is unique among the Sandpipers. It is not a 

 bird of the August sun and the light airs of summer. The 

 "rock- weed bird" comes late in autumn, or when the winter 

 wind blows cold. It is a bird of the Arctic, and only takes 

 refuge ia this more moderate clime when the frosts have 

 sealed up the waters of its northern home. It migrates regu- 

 larly only about as far south as Martha's Vineyard and Long 



