404 THE BIRDS OF KENT 



PUKPLE SANDPIPEE. 



Tringa striata, Linnasus. S.N., l, p. 248 (1766). 



Although the Purple Sandpiper has been obtained on 

 nearly every part of the coast and in all the estuaries of 

 Kent, driven there by stress of weather from its native 

 haunts, and out of its element in such situations as this, 

 coast affords, preferring a wild and rocky coast with 

 masses of stones and rocks for hiding places, among 

 which it creeps, rat-like, from intruders and the weather, 

 seeking among them what the sea may cast up for food, 

 it only remains for the autumn and winter, leaving again 

 early in March. 



KNOT. 



Tringa caniitus, LinncTus. 8.N., i., p. 251 (1766).. 

 Ash-coloured Sandpiper. 



The Knot is a regular autunm and winter visitor to 

 the coast and all the large mud-flats in the estuaries of 

 Kent. With regard to the numbers, it depends on the 

 severity of the season. On the large mud-flat of Pegwell 

 Bay and in the Medway great mobs of these birds may 

 be seen at low tide, associating with all the other wadera 

 and Gulls. 



It appears from the data obtained, that the Knot ia 

 scarcely ever absent from the Kentish coast ; there are 

 always a few stragglers left during the summer, and in 

 the full red plumage. These are no doubt non-breedera 

 or barren birds. 



Boys, in his Birds of Sandwich, 1792, calls this bird; 

 the "Ash-coloured Sandpiper." 



