484 THE PURRE. 
straight, fluted to nearly its tip, and about an inch «.d a half long; 
upper parts, brownish ash, each feather marked near the tip with a 
narrow semicircle of dark brown, bounded by another of white ; tail- 
coverts, white, marbled with olive; wing-quills, dusky, shafts, white; 
greater coverts, black, tipped with white; some of the primaries edged 
also with white ; tail, plain pale ash, finely edged and tipped with 
white; crown and hind head, streaked with black, ash, and white; 
stripe over the eye, cheeks, and chin, white, the former marked with 
pale streaks of dusky, the latter pure; breast, white, thinly specked 
with blackish; belly and vent, pure white; legs, a dirty yellowish 
clay color; toes, bordered with a narrow, thick, warty membrane ; hind 
toe, directed inwards, as in the Turnstone; claws and eye, black. 
These birds vary a little in color, some being considerably darker 
above, others entirely white below ; but, in all, the concentric semicir- 
cles on the back, scapulars, and wing-coverts, are conspicuous. 
I think it probable that these birds become much lighter colored 
during the summer, from the circumstance of having shot one late in 
the month of June, at Cape May, which was of a pale drab or dun 
color. It was very thin and emaciated ; and on examination appeared 
to have been formerly wounded, which no doubt occasioned its re- 
maining behind its companions. 
Early in December I examined the same coast every day for near- 
ly two weeks, without meeting with more than one solitary individual 
of this species, although in October they were abundant. How far to 
the southward they extend their migrations, we have no facts that will 
enable us to ascertain, though it is probable that the shores of the 
West India islands afford them shelter and resources during our 
winter. 
THE PURRE. —TRINGA CINCLUS. — Fie. 225. 
Lynn. Syst. 251.— Arct. Zool. p. 475, No. 390. — Bewick, ii. p. 115. — L’ Alouette 
de mer, Buff. vii. 548. — Peule’s Museum, No. 4126. 
TRINGA ALPINA, —Penxant. 
Tarts is one of the most numerous of our strand birds, as they are 
usually called, that frequent the sandy beach on the frontiers of the 
ocean. In its habits it differs so little from the preceding, that except 
in being still more active and expert in running and searching among 
the sand, on the reflux of the waves, as it nimbly darts about for food, 
what has been said of the former will apply equally to both, they be- 
ing pretty constant associates on these occasions. 
The Purre continues longer with us, both in spring and autumn, 
than either of the two preceding; many of them remain during the 
very severest of the winter, though the greater part retire to the more 
genial regions of the south, where [ have seen them at such seasons, 
particularly on the sea-coasts of both Carolinas, during the month of 
February, in great numbers. 
