WATER BIRDS. 181 



rare migrant in all parts of the state, more being killed during August than 

 at any other time. Three specimens were taken at Ann Arbor, May 4, 

 1877, and a specimen taken in August 1892 is preserved in the University 

 of Michigan museum (MS. list 1894-95). There are two mounted specimens 

 in the Kent Scientific Museum at Grand Rapids, under the single catalogue 

 number 20313. According to the record one of them is from Grand Rapids, 

 the other from Toronto, Ont., and both collected by Thos. Harmer. Ac- 

 cording to E. W. Nelson (Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, II, 68) it is a migrant 

 along Lake Michigan in Cook and Lake counties. 111. It has been taken 

 in Indiana and Ohio, and was formerly not uncommon in Wisconsin, 

 although now very irregular (Kumlien and Hollister, Birds of Wisconsin, 

 1903, page 44). 



It nests within the Arctic Circle, and the four eggs are said to be "pale 

 grayish buff, or grayish buffy white, boldly spotted with vandyke brown 

 and purplish gray, and average 1.42 by 1.00 inches." (Ridgway). 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Hind toe present, bill longer than head, about equal to tarsus, the latter always more 

 than one and one-half inches long, and less than one and three-quarters inches. Adult 

 in summer: Back and scapulars mostly black, mixed with some gray and buff; upper tail- 

 coverts white, with dusky bars and streaks; top of head streaked with dusky and pure white; 

 ear-coverts and sides of occiput light rust-reel; a dark streak from corner of mouth to eye; 

 rest of head and neck whitish, streaked with dusky; under parts grayish-white, barred with 

 dusky. Adult in winter: Upper parts uniform ash or gray, the tail-coverts white, more 

 or less streaked and barred; upper breast, sides of neck, and lower tail-coverts streaked 

 with gray; rest of lower parts white, as is also a streak over the eye. Yoimg: Similar, 

 but browner and bufiier, the rump white, unspotted, the luider parts washed with buff, 

 sometimes streaked with dusky. Length 7.50 to 9.25 inches; wing 5 to 5.30; culmen 

 1.55 to 1.75; tarsus 1.55 to 1.70. 



95. Knot. Tringa canutus Linn. (234). 



Synonyms: Robin Snipe, Red-breasted Sandpiper, Red-breast, Beach Robin, Gray- 

 back. — Tringa canutus, Linn., 1758, Cass., Baird, Coues, A. O. U. Check-list, 1895. — 

 Tringa cinerea, Brunn., Gmel., Wils., Nutt. — Tringa islandica, Aud., 1838. 



Adults may be known by the cinnamon or brick-red under parts, which 

 give them the names Robin Snipe and Beach Robin (Carolinas) ; immature 

 birds are gray above and nearly white below, but the size and proportions 

 are distinctive. Largest of our beach sandpipers. 



Distribution. — Nearly cosmopolitan. Breeds in high northern latitudes, 

 but visits the southern hemisphere during its migrations. 



One of the rare beach birds now, but much more common formerly. 

 It is one of those species which was extraordinarily al)undant on the Atlantic 

 coast thirty years ago but which has decreased to such an extent at present 

 as to be considerecl one of the less common migrants. We have few 

 positive records for Michigan. Covert states that one was picked up dead 

 on the Shore of Dead Lake, Washtenaw county, in October, 1876 (Birds of 

 Washtenaw county, 1878); and J. Claire Wood reports one killed near 

 Port Austin, Huron county, September 4, 1899 (Auk, XVII, 391). We 

 recently examined a specimen, apparently a "yearling" which was taken 

 at^Benton Harbor, Berrien county, June 23, 1904, by Russell Hawkins, 

 of Grand Rapids, and is now in his collection. He states that there were 

 about twenty in the flock, and that he killed two, one of which spoiled 

 before he could prepare the skin. The date is unusually late, but the bird 



