PURPLE OR ROCK SANDPIPER. 237 
Penn. — Purple or Pock Tringa, or Sandpiper of 
British authors We do not consider this Tringa 
as a very numerous species on our coasts, though, 
at certain seasons, in winter and spring, they may 
generally be met with where the shore is rocky, 
and particularly if it possesses long ridges of crag 
jutting out into the sea. The parties generally 
consist of four or five, the amount of the brood; 
but these at times assemble or congregate into flocks 
of considerable numbers. Such have been our own 
observations on the coasts of the south of Scotland 
and north of England ; and Mr. Thompson states it 
to be “ a local species, rather rare in Ireland,”* at 
the same time we have other authorities. Thus, Mr. 
Dann says, “ the Purple Sandpiper is very nume- 
rous in Orkney and Shetland, appearing early in 
spring, and leaving again at the latter end of April, 
about which time it collects in large flocks.” Our 
information relative to its breeding in this country 
is very limited; Mr. Selby met with a family on the 
Pern Islands, which were scarcely able to fly. Mr. 
Rodd also communicated to Mr. Yarrell that he had 
killed them in Cornwall both in winter and sum- 
mer ;+ and we once met with a pair of Purple Sand- 
pipers on the Bass Rock at a time when all the 
other inhabitants had young; but, like the other 
birds of this and allied genera which are known to 
breed in northern latitudes, those which remain, and, 
as it were, accidentally breed with us, can only be 
considered as the very limit of the range, or as hap- 
* Thompson’s M.S.S. t Yarrell, ii. p. 66S. 
