392 
PURPLE SANDPIPER. 
beginning' of the back, and another on each side ; the long* feathers of 
the breast and rmiip are variagated with ferruginous. 
This species is very rare in Holland, and all the northern parts of 
Europe, where it only occurs accidentally. It builds its nest among 
the reeds under the bank of the lakes and rivers, or in the coppice or 
brushwood of the marshes and fens, in which it lays three eggs, of an 
ashy -green colour. It is more abundant towards the south ; on the con- 
fines of Asia and Africa, they are met with in great numbers.* 
PURPLE SANDPIPER {Tringa maritima^ Brunnich.) 
Tiinga nigricans, Linn. Trans. 4. p. 40. t. 2. — Tringa Striata, Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 
672 Briss. & Retz, p. 182 Lath. lud. Orn. 2. p. 733 Totamis striatus, 
Briss. 5. p. 196. 5. — lb. 8vo. il. p. 263. — Le Chavalier Raye, Buff. Ois. 7. p. 
516. — Striated Sandpiper, Arct. Zool. 11. No. 383 — Lath. Syn. 5. p. 176. — 
Purple Sandpiper, Wale. Syn. 2. t. 155 Flem. Br. Anim. p. 110 Sea Sand- 
piper, Linn. Trans. 4. p. 22. t. 1 ? — Tringa Maritiina, Brunn. Orn. Bor. p. 182. 
— Temm. Man. d’Orn. 2. p. 619. — Selninger Sandpiper, Lath. Syn. 5. p. 173. 
15?— Tnd. Orn. 2. p. 731. 18 ?— Arct. Zool. 2. p. 480. C. 
This species rather exceeds the dunlin in size; the length eight 
inches and a half. The bill is slender, an inch and a quarter long, 
tapering towards the point, a very little curved, and of a dull red- 
colour, except at the apex and sides, which are dusky; irides hazel; the 
head and neck dusky black ; eyelids whitish ; the throat white ; back 
and scapulars black, glossed with purple and edged with ash-colour ; 
the wing coverts black, tipped with white ; the larger ones above the 
primores deeply so ; quills black, slightly edged with white on the ex- 
terior webs, except three of the secondaries, which are almost wholly 
white ; these, with the white-tipped coverts, form a slight oblique bar 
on the wing when extended ; the shafts white ; breast and all beneath 
white, prettily spotted with black, except the middle of the belly and 
vent ; the rump, coverts of the tail, and four middle tail feathers, black, 
glossed like the back ; the other tail feathers light cinereous ; in all 
twelve ; the legs and toes dull red ; claws black and blunt ; toes nearly 
divided to their origin ; middle toe an inch long. 
This bird was killed at Laugharne, on the coast of Caermarthenshire, 
in January, in company with the dunlin ; two others were shot there 
the same winter, and were called by the fishermen red-legs ; but these 
did not come under our inspection. The one from which the above 
description is taken, is now in our collection. We have since been fa- 
voured with the skin of one from Mr. Boys, of Sandwich, which was 
killed on that coast in the winter of 1799. It corresponded exactly 
with the above, except that the bill was rather longer and straight, 
and the breast more dusky. 
