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with occasionally earlier. I have killed it in August ; and Mr. C. M. Adamson shot one on the 

 19th of July. These early birds retain their worn summer dress. It is common during the 

 autumn and winter months, and has been killed up to the middle of May. I have an example 

 that was shot at St. Mary's Island on the 18th of that month ; and Mr. C. M. Adamson shot one 

 on the 9th ; both these specimens had acquired their summer plumage." Mr. Robert Gray says 

 (B. of W. of Scotl. p. 326), " throughout the west of Scotland the Purple Sandpiper is found 

 from September till the end of April and beginning of May ; but in some of the inner islands, as 

 well as those of the outer group, many specimens are observed even a month later in the season. 

 Dr. Dewar observed several flocks on the Ascrib Islands, in Loch Snizort, in the north-west of 

 Skye, on 6th May, 1870. Single birds, indeed, were found lingering on the mainland about the 

 same time ; two specimens have been sent to me from the shores of Loch Ridden, in the Kyles 

 of Bute. Captain Feilden shot two specimens near Barra Head, on the island of Bomeray, on 

 27th May of the same year, and two others on Mingalay. On dissection they all proved to be 

 females ; and one of them showed some abrasion of the belly- and breast-feathers, from which it 

 was inferred that it had been sitting on eggs. The ovaries of all the birds were found to be 

 much distended; but no mature eggs were found in them. Two of these specimens are now 

 before me, and appear to be in full breeding-plumage. Captain Feilden has suggested to me 

 that when the four birds were shot the males had been sitting on the nests. Single birds have 

 also been seen in Harris late in May ; and I have myself observed solitary birds on the island of 

 Scalpa, at the entrance to Loch Tarbert. Mr. Graham has met with several specimens in com- 

 plete summer dress on the islands of Iona and Staffa, where a few pairs appear to linger every 

 year. 



" On the east coast the Purple Sandpiper is also met with in summer in equal numbers, 

 ranging from Berwickshire to the Shetland Islands. Small parties were observed in the last- 

 named district by Mr. Hewitson about thirty years ago. Mr. Selby found the young more than 

 once on the Fame Islands in the month of June, when they were scarcely able to fly ; and I met 

 with and shot stray specimens fully fledged near Dunbar in the end of July 1851. Sir William 

 Jardine also saw a pair on the Bass Rock at a time when all other birds had young ; and 

 Macgillivray mentions having seen one on the same rock on 20th May, 1831." According to 

 Dr. Saxby, from the beginning of October to the beginning of May it is by far the commonest of 

 the Shetland Sandpipers ; and he believes that it sometimes breeds there. 



In Ireland it is to be met with regularly in the autumn and winter on certain parts of the 

 coast. Throughout Greenland, wherever it finds suitable localities, it is generally distributed, 

 and is said to be very common, occurring also during winter as far north as the sea is clear of 

 ice. Dr. Pansch met with it on Sabine Island. According to Professor Newton it is, in Iceland, 

 " common everywhere in the neighbourhood of the coast, and occasionally to be seen inland, 

 where it also breeds. According to Faber it is a resident, and hatches its eggs about the middle 

 of June. Great numbers are shot near Reykjavik in spring, and are sold for the table." On 

 the Fseroes many breed, the species being, Captain Feilden says, not uncommon on Sandoe. It 

 is common in Norway, and, Mr. Collett informs me, breeds numerously in East Finmark both 

 near and at some distance from the sea. In winter, he adds, it is found in countless thousands 

 along the whole coast up to the North Cape. Professor Nilsson states that numbers pass the 



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