ARQUATELLA MARITIMA.
Purple Sandpiper.
Tringa maritima, Brünn. Om. Bor., no. 182.
nigricans, Mont. Linn. Trans., vol. iv. p. 40, pl. 2.
striata, Flem. Hist, o fß rit. Anim., p. 110.
arquatella, Pall. Zoog. Rosso-Asiat., tom. ii. p. 190.
-—- — Canadensis, Lath. Ind. Om., Supp. p. 65.
littoralis, Brehm, Vög. Deutschl., p. 652.
Totanus maritimus, Steph. Cont. of Shaw’s Gen. Zool., vol. xii. p. 146.
Tringa ( Arquatella) maritima, Baird, Cat. of N. Amer. Birds in Mus. Smiths. Inst., p. xlvii. no. 528.
T his bird, although nowhere very numerous in the British Islands, is nevertheless sufficiently abundant in
autumn, winter, and spring to entitle it to*be regarded as a common species; it is sometimes met with in
flocks, but more often in smaller numbers, in all the rocky parts of our shores, from north to south, from
Cornwall to the Orkneys, and apparently evinces no preference for the eastern over the western coasts.
I t is less numerous in Ireland than in England and Scotland. As the Dunlin loves muddy flats, and the Stint
shingly shores, so the Purple Sandpiper delights to be among kelp, sea-weed, and shelving billow-washed
beaches; its short tarsi, long stout toes, and short bulky body, as compared with the slender Dunlin, Stint,
and other shore-loving Sandpipers, indicate that it differs from them in its mode o f life. In confirmation of
this induction, I may mention that Mr. Gatcombe, of Plymouth, writes :— “ I have observed a peculiar habit
in the Purple Sandpiper when feeding on the rocks during rough weather. On seeing a large wave approach,
it crouches and holds on the rock, allowing the spray to dash completely over it, and, on the wave
receding, rises and displays the greatest activity in picking up its food until another wave compels it to
crouch again.” At the period the Purple Sandpiper visits us its trivial name is very applicable; for not only
does the whole o f the upper surface assume a purple tint, but the feathers of the back and rump are tinged
with violet: a change o f colour, however, is very perceptibly going on before the bird leaves us in spring,
and by midsummer its plumage is so metamorphosed as to give it the appearance o f a totally different species.
From the crown of the head to the lower part of the scapuiaries all the feathers are edged with chestnut and
white, while the purple winter colouring o f their centres has given place to brownish black. In this dress,
however, it scarcely ever, if ever, appears in the British Islands; but in such a garb it is seen in Iceland, Spitz-
bergen, Greenland, and probably in the whole o f Arctic America; for every voyager who has written on the
avifauna of those regions speaks of it as a common summer-resident there. Messrs. Evans and Sturge, who
visited Spitzbergen in 1855, say :<j^‘ T he Purple Sandpiper (Tringa maritima, Briinn.) was very abundant
in Coal Bay, on the south side o f Ice Sound ; and we found four of their nests on the high fjeld. Beautiful
little nests they were, deep in the ground, and lined with stalks of grass and leaves of the Dwarf Birch
(Betala nana, L .), containing mostly four eggs, of an olive-green, handsomely mottled with purplish brown,
chiefly a t the larger end. We watched this little bird with much interest as it waded into some pool of
snow-water or ran along the shingle, every now and then raising its wings over-its back and exhibiting the
delicate tint o f the underside, at the same time uttering its loud shrill whistle.”^ - ‘ Ibis,’ vol. i. p. 171.
Holboell, in his ‘ Fauna o f Greenland,’ says that it breeds throughout that country, th at it “ disappears from
the sea-coast a t the beginning o f June, and resorts to the tableland on the mountains, where it remains a
short time in small flocks, and then goes in pairs to the breeding-places, which, though always at some distance
from the sea, are never far inland; it lays four eggs, and is very careful of its young ones.” That it also
breeds in the Faroe Islands is certain, the late Mr. Wolley having sent thence to Mr. Hewitson eggs
from which the old bird was shot, and informed him th at it there “ breeds sparingly on the very tops o f high
mountains, where I found its young a t the end o f June still unable to fly. One pair I remember particularly
was in the very midst o f a colony of Skuas ; they stood upon large stones, in an easy attitude, but evidently
watching our movements. From this spot I have now for two years had their eggs.”
“ Mr. Dann remarks,” says Yarrell, “ that, unlike the others o f this tribe, the Purple Sandpiper does not
altogether quit the Scandinavian coast in w in ter; as the ice accumulates and the sea freezes up, it betakes
itself to the outermost range of islands and rocks with which that coast is so numerously studded, feeding
among the sea-weed left bare by the slight fall of the tide, on the marine insects which it finds a t the edge
o f the water. I have procured specimens throughout the w inter on the Swedish coast, and during very severe
frosts. I t is perfectly fearless. During windy weather, when not feeding, it seeks shelter in the crevices of
the rocks. Its plumage in winter is very thick, and the bird appears much larger than in summer.”