NESTS AXD EGGS OE AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 821 



Nest. — Undescribed. 



Eggs. — Clutch, ; light pea-green, closely spotted with brown 



in small specks about the size of a pin liead. Dimensions in inches : 

 11x10 (Merriam). 



Observations. — The Knot is an exceedingly interesting migrant, 

 wandering from the Arctic regions to the far south, even to New Zealand. 

 It was first noticed in Australia, near Brisbane, on 2nd September, 1861. 

 Since then it has been observed m New South Wales, Victoi'ia and South 

 Australia. Oiu- National Museum possesses examples, and I recollect 

 once seeing a bird in a taxidermists shop in Melboiu'ne ; also' odd birds 

 exliibited for sale in the market, with Snipe, Shaip-tailed, Little and 

 ClU'lew Stints. For all that the Knot may be deemed a rare bird in 

 these parts. When in full breeding or siuiimer plumage in the noi-th, 

 the whole of the undenieath parts are chestnut, which is also the prevail- 

 ing colour of the upper parts. The traces of red are disappearing or 

 have disappeared by the time the bird reaches Australia in oui- spring 

 or early summer. The Knot is then in its off-season di'ess, a garb of 

 grey. The uninitiated seeing the bird in its northern summer plmnage 

 and in its Australian winter phase might .suppose he was looking at 

 two distinct species. Tlie specimens 1 saw in Melbourne appeared to 

 have lost little, if any, of its chestnut colouring. 



Ml". A. Coles exhibited at a meeting of the Field Natiu-alists' Club 

 of Victoria, held 13th July, 1896, a fine group of Knots — a male in full 

 pkunag?, a female, and an immatiu'e female — which were shot at Western 

 Port the middle of May. I c<-in imderstand the male being in full lively 

 about that time, but what were the birds doing in Austral regions at 

 that particular season instead of being somewhere within the Arctic 

 Circle breeding? 



Scarcely auytlring is known of the breeding places of the Knot. 

 Mr. H. C. Hart, the naturalist of the expedition of the " Alert " and 

 " Discovery," saw nvmierous fuU-grO'Wn birds with their young in the down 

 in the neighbourhood of Discovery Bay. The finding of an egg by 

 Lieutenant Greely, late commander of the United States Expedition 

 to Lady Franklin Sound, was announced in the " Auk," the American 

 ornithological joiu-nal, by Dr. Hart Merriam, who says : " Lieutenant 

 Greely writes me the specimens of tlie bird and egg were obtained in 

 the vicinity of Fort Conger, latitude 81 ij deg. north.'' Some authorities 

 ai-e incHned to doubt the parentage of the egg. 



635. — Tring.v ckassirostkis, Temminck and Schlegel. — (526) 

 GREAT SANDPIPER. 



figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vi., pi. a- 

 Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xxiv., p. 600. 



Geographical Di>;fribufioii. — ^Northern Territory, Queensland, New 

 South Wales, and West Australia ; also New Guinea, and the Malayan 

 Archipelago, migrating through China and Japan to Eastern Siberia. 



