THE PURPLE SANDPIPER. 
261 
Length to end of tail 9i inches, to end of wings 9J ; to end of claws IO 3 ■ 
extent of wings 18 ; wing from flexure ; tail 2 T \ ; bill along the ridge D, 
along the edge of lower mandible IfV ; bare part of tibia tarsus 1R, 
middle toe £, its claw T \. W eight 6 oz. 
Adult Female in summer. 
The female, which is a little larger, is similar to the male. 
Mouth very narrow, its width 2J twelfths. Palate with two rows of 
reversed papillse. Tongue very slender, tapering, channelled above, 11 
twelfths long. (Esophagus 4§ inches long, its average width 2^ twelfths ; 
proventriculus 3§ twelfths. Stomach oblique, roundish, 10 twelfths long, 9 
twelfths in breadth ; its lateral muscles large ; epithelium dense, longitudi- 
nally rugous. Contents of stomach remains of small Crustacea, seeds, and 
fragments of quartz. Intestine ID inches long,lJ twelfths wide ; coeca 1J 
inches long, 1 twelfth in width, 1 inch 5 twelfths distant from the extremity ; 
rectum 2 twelfths in width, slightly dilated at the end. Trachea 3^ inches 
long, 2 twelfths in breadth, much flattened; the rings 102, slender, unossified. 
Bronchi wide, of about 12 half rings. Muscles as in the other species of 
this family. Male. 
THE PURPLE SANDPIPER. 
Tringa maritima, Brunn. 
PLATE CCOSXX. — Adult in Summer and in Winter. 
I am surprised that my worthy friend Thomas Nuttall speaks of this 
species as being scarcely ever seen in the United States, where, to my know- 
ledge, it is on the contrary very abundant, and nowhere more so than in the 
neighbourhood of the Harbour of Boston, in the markets of which city it is 
sold in autumn and winter. When I was there, a gunner whom I employed 
brought me several dozens, which he had killed in the course of a single 
afternoon. I have also seen some in the markets of New York. Farther 
south, however, they are rarely met with. 
Timid though not shy, they are seen in flocks of eight or ten, on the 
rocky shores of the sea. They seem to shun sandy beaches, and seldom 
Vol. Y. 36 
