164 FEATHERED GAME 
shores of the outer islands where he has no 
company but the swash of the waves and the 
seething hiss of driving snow as it is swallowed 
up in the sea is the Purple Sandpiper at home. 
Hardy indeed is he and no stress of weather 
seems to trouble him. He is the only resident 
awake when the sleepy prowler, planning death 
and destruction to the sea ducks, is headed for 
his hiding place among the rocks, and in the 
gray mist rising from the ocean he looks to the 
heavy eyes of the gunner almost as large as a 
duck himself. 
Easy of approach and fearless because seldom 
molested, since on account of timing their visits 
to our coasts during the winter season the shore- 
bird shooter entirely misses seeing them and 
the winter gunner is after larger game, they 
pay little heed to an approaching boat. A gen- 
erous supply of suitable clothing keeps them 
comfortable in any weather. They may be seen 
dozing complacently in the sun on a winter af- 
ternoon when the mercury has gone down out of 
sight in the glass, for their homes and chosen 
haunts are in the north, and only the closing 
up of those waters by the winter’s ice forces 
them into our latitudes at all. 
This ‘‘hardy Norseman”’ has the figure of the 
