186 TRINGA CANUTUS. 



Male. — The Knot, which is much larger than the Purple 

 Sandpiper and Dunlin, and inferior in size to the Ruff, pre- 

 sents nothing in its form and structure differing in a remark- 

 able degree from the other species of the genus. The bill is 

 very slightly longer than the head, straight, slender, some- 

 what compressed; the upper mandible has its dorsal outline 

 straight, the ridge flattened towards the end, the lip con- 

 siderably enlarged, obtuse, a little exceeding that of the 

 lower, the sides deeply grooved to near the end ; the lower 

 mandible has the angle very long and narrow, the sides 

 grooved, the tip enlarged and obtuse. The oesophagus is 

 four and a half inches long, of uniform diameter and narrow ; 

 the proventriculus small, with very numerous glandules. 

 The gizzard is very large, its muscles extremely firm, its 

 cuticular lining longitudinally rugous ; its length an inch 

 and a half. The intestine twenty-nine inches long, of nearly 

 uniform diameter ; the coeca three inches long, with a 

 diameter of two-twelfths; the rectum an inch and three- 

 quarters in length ; the general diameter of the intestine 

 four- twelfths. 



The head is small, oblong, and compressed ; the eyes 

 rather small ; the aperture of the ears large, being four- 

 twelfths across. The feet are very slender and of moderate 

 length; the tibia bare* for a short space; tarsus anteriorly 

 covered with thirty-five broad scutella ; toes small ; the first 

 very small and elevated, with six scutella, the second with 

 eighteen, the third with thirty, the fourth with twenty scu- 

 tella ; the anterior toes are very slightly webbed at the base, 

 and rather broadly margined. The claws are very small, 

 curved, compressed, and obtuse. 



The plumage is blended; on the back and wings the 

 feathers are distinct and rounded. The Avings are very long 

 and pointed ; the quills twenty-five ; the primaries tapering, 

 the first longest, the rest rapidly graduated ; the inner 

 secondaries elongated and tapering, the longest an inch 

 shorter than the first primary. The tail is short, even, of 

 twelve tapering, rounded feathers, the two middle and the 

 outer a little longer, so that the organ is in fact doubly emar- 

 ginate in a slight degree ; the tail-coverts long and narrow. 



