purple sandpiper

DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

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a shore bird, Erolia maritima, common in the North, so called because of its winter feathers of purplish black over underparts of white.

Quotations

1908

Sir John Richardson many years ago stated that it bred extensively on Melville Island and on the shores of Hudson Bay.

1942

Very few white men have seen what we saw--the mating of the purple sandpiper.

1956

Purple Sandpiper [is also called] Big Beachy bird (Nfld., "Labr."). . . .