The purple sandpiper (_Tringa maritina_, Brünn.) was very abundant in Coal Bay (on the south side of Ice Sound, so named on account of a small quantity of poor coal being found there), and we found four of their nests on the high field. Beautiful little nests they were, deep in the ground, and lined with stalks of grass and leaves of the dwarf birch (_Betula nana_, L.), containing mostly four eggs of an olive green, handsomely mottled with purplish brown, chiefly at the larger end. We watched this elegant little bird--the only one of the _Grallatores_ we saw--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 of the under side, at the same time uttering its loud shrill whistle. No recent accounts of the nesting habits of this species seem to have been published and the data on eggs in collections seem to be rather scanty. I have never found a nest myself. Both sexes are said to incubate the eggs and share in the care of the young. The period of incubation is over 20 days. _Eggs._--A very good description of the eggs is given by Seebohm (1884) as follows: The eggs of the purple sandpiper are four in number and remarkably handsome. They vary in ground color from pale olive to pale buffish brown, boldly mottled, blotched, and streaked with reddish brown and very dark blackish brown. On some eggs the blotches are large, and chiefly distributed in an oblique direction round the large end; on others they are more evenly distributed over the entire surface; and on many a few very dark scratches, spots, or streaks are scattered here and there amongst the brown markings. The underlying markings are numerous and conspicuous, and are pale violet gray or grayish brown in color. Frank Poynting's (1895) colored plate of 12 selected eggs well illustrates the great variation in the beautiful eggs of this species. There are two distinct types of ground color, green and buff. In the green types the colors vary from "yellowish glaucous" to a light shade of "grape green"; and in the buff types from "cream buff" to "dark olive buff." They are sometimes evenly, but more often irregularly, spotted and blotched with various shades of brown, "sepia," "bister," and "snuff brown," sometimes boldly marked with "chocolate" and "burnt umber" and sometimes with great splashes of "vinaceous brown" overlaid with blotches of "chestnut brown" and "bay," a handsome combination. The measurements of 100 eggs, supplied by Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain, average 37.3 by 26.5 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =40= by =28=, =35.1= by 26.6 and 37.3 by =24.8= millimeters. _Plumages._--The nestling is described in Witherby's Handbook (1920) as follows: