74 



6 



Island, Behring's Sea, where it was common on the dry uplands and on the hills. Bischoff got 

 it plentifully at Sitka, and also at Plover Bay, on the Asiatic side of Behring's Straits. To this 

 Mr. Bannister adds that in October 1865 he obtained quite a number of specimens at the Redoubt, 

 Avhere it then appeared to be quite common. In the succeeding year he did not observe it up to 

 the 1st of October, when he left the country. Von Kittlitz records it from the small island of 

 Amachnak, near Unalaschka. My brother Arthur, who knows this bird well, assures me that 

 he met with it on Lake Nipigon and on Lake Ontario. Captain Blakiston says that it occurs 

 in Melville Peninsula and Hudson's Bay ; and I used to see it in large numbers during the winter 

 off the coast of New Brunswick and Maine. 



Essentially maritime in its habits, frequenting the rocky wilder portions of the sea-coast, the 

 present species is seldom or never met with inland, except during the breeding-season. I have 

 never had an opportunity of watching it except in the winter, when large numbers frequented 

 the coasts of New Brunswick, especially the rocks off Mace's Bay, there called the Ledges. 

 These rocks used to be nearly covered during high tides, one small flat rock alone being above 

 water ; and I have seen this literally covered with Purple Sandpipers, and have when sailing past 

 killed large numbers at one discharge as they rose to fly off. As a rule, I found them very tame, 

 allowing one to approach tolerably close as they ran about amongst the rocks in search of food. 

 Owing to their short legs, and the thick covering of feathers, which they puffed out a good deal, 

 they had a very short, dumpy look, and reminded me of a dark ball of feathers as they glided 

 along the surface of the rock. I often noticed a curious habit they had of allowing the spray of 

 a wave to dash over them instead of running quite clear of it: and this my friend Mr. Gatcombe 

 has also observed ; for he writes to me that he has observed these Sandpipers feeding during 

 rough weather on the rocks, and that, on seeing a larger wave than usual approach, they would 

 crouch and, holding firmly to the rock, allow the spray to dash completely over them, rising 

 immediately the water receded, displaying the greatest activity in picking up their food until 

 another wave compelled them to crouch once more. The present species feeds on small marine 

 insects of various kinds, and various mollusca. Mr. Collett says that the stomach of one obtained 

 in Norway on the 12th of November, contained the young of Litorina and Mytilus edulis, 

 together with seeds of a sea-shore plant ; and individuals he shot in Finmark in the summer had 

 in their stomachs the remains of insects, chiefly of Otiorhynchus blandus. 



Dr. Saxby gives (B. of Shetl. p. 211) some interesting details respecting the present species 

 as observed by him in Shetland, viz. : — " Its habits are best observed on a lee shore after a 

 breeze of sufficient strength to cause a pretty heavy swell. These birds may then be seen to 

 advantage, running and climbing about the large rocks, picking off shells and small insects — 

 every returning wave apparently so nearly sweeping them away, as it rolls foaming up the 

 steep beach, that, in spite of one's self, it is almost impossible to leave the spot, fully expecting 

 the next will overwhelm them. But, often as I have watched them, such an untoward event has 

 never been witnessed, so vigilant are they, however deeply engaged in their work, and so nimbly 

 do they rise, almost perpendicularly, at the precise moment when the rising wave seems to be 

 upon the point of bearing them down with it. It is usually during or immediately after a gale, 

 when the whole of the rocky parts of the coast are buried under a constant cloud of heavy spray, 

 that they seek the open shore. There, in company with Turnstones, Dunlin, or Ringed Plovers, 



