Fore part of crown warm buff; black-brown median line from base of upper mandible to crown; crown and upper parts velvety black-brown, down with numerous cream and warm buff tips; nape light buff, down with sooty-brown bases; from base of upper mandible above eye to nape a black-brown streak, another short one from base of lower mandible, ear coverts as crown; cheeks warm or light buff, down with black-brown tips; remaining under parts grayish white, down sooty brown toward base. The juvenal plumage is much like that of the summer adult, except that the feathers of the crown are tipped with creamy white, as are also the central tail feathers; the feathers of the mantle and scapulars are edged with buffy white; and the wing coverts and tertials are broadly edged with the same color or tipped with pale pinkish buff. The juvenal body plumage is usually molted before the birds reach us on migration, when young birds, in first winter plumage, can be recognized by the broad white edgings of the median coverts and by a few retained scapulars and tertials. Some of these juvenal feathers are retained through the next, the partial prenuptial molt. Subsequent molts and plumages are as in the adult. Adults have a complete postnuptial molt between August and November and a partial prenuptial molt from January to May; this latter involves most of the body plumage, but not all of the scapulars, back, rump, or upper tail coverts. _Food._--The favorite feeding places of purple sandpipers are the wave-washed rocky shores of islands or promontories along the seashore, with a decided preference for islands. Here, where the rocks are fringed with rockweed, waving in the restless waves, or covered with barnacles and various slimy products of the sea, these sure-footed little birds are quite at home on the slippery rocks, as they glean abundant food at the water's edge and skillfully avoid being washed away. Yarrell (1871) says that-- it may be seen busily employed turning over stones and searching among seaweed for the smaller shrimps and sandhoppers which are to be found there, and it also feeds on young crabs, marine insects, and the soft bodies of animals inhabiting small shells. Witherby's Handbook (1920) gives its food as-- varied, including insects: coleoptera (_Otiorhynchus_), diptera (larvae of _Chironomus_), also spiders, _Thysanura_ (or _Collembola_), annelida and crustacea (_Amphipoda_, _Isopoda_, _Orchestia_, _Idotea_, _Gammarus_, and _Podocerus_) as well as mollusca (_Mytilus_, _Littorina_, _Purpura_, etc.). Vegetable matter is also eaten including algae, grasses, moss, buds, and leaves of phanerogams and remains of cryptogams. Seeds of _Cochlearia_ have been identified and small fish (_Gobius_) nearly 1 inch long, as well as ova of lumpsucker.