OF THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 253 



Family CHAEADEIID^. Genus Teinga. 



Subfamily ScOLOPAClNM. 



PURPLE SANDPIPER. 



TEINGA MK&TUKk—Chnelin. 



Tringra maritima, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 678 (1788; ; Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 197 (1852) ; 



Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 192 (1885) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs Non-indig. 



Brit. B. p. 262 (1894) ; Seebohm, Col. Pig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 146, pi. 43 (1896). 

 Tringa striata (nee Linn.) ; Dresser, B. Bur. viii. p. 69, pi. 554 (1877) ; Yarrell, Brit. 



B. ed. 4, iii. p. 408 (1883); Lilford. Col. Fig. Brit. B. pt. xxiv. (1893). 



Arquatella maritima (Gmel.), Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. iii. p. 237 (1896) ; Sharpe, 

 Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 578 (1896). 



Geographical distribution.— Briitis^ .- The Purple Sandpiper is a fairly 

 common winter visitor to the British Islands, locally distributed on all parts of 

 the coast suited to its requirements, including the Hebrides, the Orkneys, and 

 the Shetlands, and equally as well known in Ireland as in the rest of the United 

 Kingdom. Many birds may probably pass our coasts in spring and autumn ; 

 some few remain in the British Islands through the summer — a fact which has 

 given rise to the belief that this species occasionally nests with us ; but no 

 authentic instance has yet been recorded. It is not improbable that an odd pair 

 may do so in the Orkneys and Shetlands, or in the Outer Hebrides. Young birds, 

 scarcely fledged, have, it is said, been obtained on the Fame Islands ; but this 

 proves nothing, for young Knots, with flakes of down still adhering to their 

 plumage, have been observed on the British coasts. The Purple Sandpiper is 

 much rarer some years than others, especially during mild northern winters ; 

 and at no time are the migrations of this species very extended. Foreign : Cir- 

 cumpolar region. It breeds in Iceland, the Faroes, Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, 

 on the Taimur Peninsula, on the coast of Behring Strait, and across Arctic 

 America to Greenland. In the extreme north of its range it appears to be 

 migratory, but in the southern limits, as, for instance, in South Greenland, Iceland, 

 the Faroes and the coast of Norway, it is resident. It winters on the southern 

 coasts of the North Sea, and in small numbers on the northern shores of the 

 Mediterranean and on the Kurile Islands, south of Kamtschatka. The American 

 birds appear to winter round the Great Lakes and on the shores of New Bruns- 

 wick, occasionally wandering to the Bermudas and the Azores; whilst one 

 example has been obtained in South Africa. 



