THE PUREE. 
347 
ashy black ; toes divided to their origin, and bordered with a slightly 
scalloped membrane ; irides very dark. 
The males and females are nearly alike in one respect, both differing 
greatly in color even at the same season, probably owing to difference 
of age ; some being of a much brighter red than others, and the plumage 
dotted with white. In the month of September, many are found desti- 
tute of the black crescent on the belly ; these have been conjectured to 
be young birds. 
Note. — After an attentive examination of many of these birds on the 
coast of Cape May, in the month of April, I am perfectly convinced, 
that the hitherto supposed two species, the present and the Purre, con- 
stitute but one species, the latter being in immature plumage. In some 
instances, I found the Purres were beginning to get the broad band of 
black on the belly, and the black thickening with ruddy feathers, ap- 
pearing almost perfect Black-bellied Sandpipers. — Wilson's MSS. 
TRINGA C1NCLUS* 
THE PURRE. 
[Plate LVII. Fig. 3.] 
Linn. Syst. 251.— Arct. Zool. p. 475, No. 300.— Bewick, ii., p. 115.— L'Alouette de 
mer, Burr, vn., 548. 
This 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 habit 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 being 
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 I have seen them at such seasons, particu- 
larly on the seacoasts of both Carolinas, during the month of February, 
in great numbers. 
These birds, in conjunction with several others, sometimes collect 
together in such flocks, as to seem, at a distance, a large cloud of thick 
* The preceding species in immature plumage. 
