THE KNOT 205 



brood during the short but hot arctic summer, and then 

 hurriedly comes south again as soon as its autumn moult is 

 completed. Although the Knot frequents certain parts of 

 our coast in countless thousands every year, not one of these 

 birds remain to breed, and its eggs have never yet been taken 

 by man. The immigration of the Knot into this country begins 

 as early as August, and the birds continue to arrive in thou- 

 sands until the end of October. Singularly enough the young 

 birds are the first to come (piloted by a few adults), and they 

 are followed a little later by their parents. Few shore-birds are 

 more gregarious than this little arctic wader, and flocks com- 

 posed of thousands of individuals frequent the boundless mud- 

 flats, feeding on the edge of the incoming tide, or frequenting 

 the margins of the big pools of salt water on the marshes. 

 Vast numbers of Knots are caught every autumn in the flight- 

 nets, and the shore-shooter is ever trying to discharge his gun 

 at the flocks of this interesting little bird. The young birds 

 are remarkably tame on their arrival. They have had no 

 experience of man in the country which they have just left, 

 but incessant persecution soon makes them uncommonly wary 

 and suspicious. They run nimbly about the shore, generally 

 all the birds in a flock headinfr in the same direction, searchino- 

 systematically every foot of ground. AVhen alarmed the 

 whole flock rises at once, and often performs various graceful 

 evolutions in the air before settling again on a distant part of 

 the coast. 



Knots feed at night as well as by day, and I have often 

 watched them on the mudflats by the light of the moon 

 running about near the sea, or huddled together on a sand- 

 bank in a dense mass waiting for the water to subside. When 

 feeding the Knots are constantly in motion, and every now 

 and then a bird flutters up into the air and passes over its 

 companions to search a fresh bit of ground. Here in this 

 country the food of the Knot is composed of small marine 



