PURPLE SANDPIPER. OO 



ductions hang to some parts, and this accounts for the 

 Purple Sandpiper being seen to run about on such situations, 

 as recorded by northern travellers. 



This species breeds amidst the rocky valleys of Ice- 

 land and other northern countries ; the nest, consisting of 

 a hollow place in the ground, lined with a few mosses or 

 other herbage, contains three or four eggs of an oblong 

 shape. It does not unfrequently happen that a pair re- 

 mains here to breed, but the nest and eggs are very difficult 

 to obtain. 



The entire length of the Purple Sandpiper is eight inches 

 and a quarter ; the beak one inch and a quarter ; the wing, 

 from the carpus to the tip, five inches three lines ; the tarsus 

 ten lines and a half. 



The plumage of the adult bird in summer seems not to 

 be well understood by British Ornithologists, at least we 

 do not find it properly described by any individual in this 

 country. The feathers of the top of the head and back, 

 scapulars, and tertials are reddish brown, with black centres, 

 which reflect metallic colours according to the light ; the 

 tips of the scapulars and tertials are white ; the wing-coverts 

 are cinereous dusky ; quills dusky, the roots of which are 

 white ; the greater wing-coverts are edged with white ; the 

 middle tail-feathers are black, with rufous yellow edges; 

 the others have cinereous dusky edges. The forehead and a 

 streak extending over the eyes, pure white ; the chin and 

 throat also white ; the cheeks are tinged with rufous and 

 finely spotted with dusky ; the throat is soiled white, mixed 

 with grey, and spotted with dusky streaks ; the crop, sides, 

 and front of the breast are cinereous brown, with dusky spots 

 that surround the shafts, and fan out over the feather, leaving 

 a white tip and edge ; the remainder of the under parts are 

 more white, and the spots more elongated and becoming 



