331. 4. Tringa maritima, Brunnich. Purple Sandpiper.
Plate CCLXXXIV. Fig. 1. Adult in summer. Fig. 2. In winter.
Bill deep orange, dusky toward the end; feet light orange. Head greyish-brown, tinged with purple, its sides and those of the neck deep purple; back and wings brownish-black, with purple gloss, the margins of the feathers white; quills brownish-black, their shafts, the tips of all the secondaries, and the greater part of the middle ones, white; middle tail-feathers brownish-black, tinged with purple, the lateral shaded with ash-grey; upper part of throat greyish-white, fore neck grey; breast, sides, and abdomen white. In winter, the lower parts are pale grey, the upper parts have the purplish tints much fainter, the white edgings substituted by dull grey.
Male, 91/2, 143/4.
Abundant from Maine to New York, in autumn and spring. Breeds in Hudson's Bay, and on Melville Island.
Tringa maritima, Bonap. Syn. p. 318.
Tringa maritima, Purple Sandpiper, Swains. & Rich. F. Bor. Amer. v. ii. p. 382.
Purple Sandpiper, Tringa maritima, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. iii. p. 558.
332. 5. Tringa rufescens, Vieill. Buff-breasted Sandpiper.
Plate CCLXV. Male and Female.
Bill not longer than the head, dull olive-green, dusky toward the point; feet dull yellowish-green; upper parts greyish-yellow, each feather blackish-brown in the centre; wing-coverts lighter; quills and coverts light greyish-brown, greenish-black at the end, with the tip whitish, the inner webs whitish in the greater part of their breadth, and beautifully dotted with black, in undulating lines; the inner secondaries like the back; the two middle tail-feathers greyish-brown, at the end dark brown glossed with green, and slightly margined and tipped with white, the rest gradually paler to the outer, margined and tipped with white, within which are two lines of blackish-brown; sides of the head, fore neck, and sides light yellowish-red, the throat paler, the sides of the neck and body spotted with brownish-black, the rest of the lower parts paler and unspotted; lower wing-coverts white, those near the edge of the wing black in the centre, primary coverts dotted with black, and having a spot of the same near the end.
Male, 8, 18.