noise as long as there is anyone in the vicinity. Tlicy arc very tame in this locaHiy 

 (Utica), and freqnently wlien one is started from its nest it will not even leave 

 the tree, but alight on a limb near by. They are gentle in disposition and never 

 attempt to strike at a person, although they are very solicitous about their eggs 

 and young. For days after they have been robbed these birds will utter their com- 

 plaints when anyone approaches their homes." 



"Their food consists to a great extent of small rodents, such as mice, gophers, 

 and squirrels ; shrews, small snakes, frogs, grasshoppers, beetles, larvse of insects, 

 and very rarely small birds. It is one of the most harmless of our Raptores and 

 of great benefit to the farmer" (Bendire). 



Knot {Tringa canutus) 



Range : Breeds from northern ICllcsmere Land south to Melville Peninsula 

 and Iceland ; also on Taimyr Peninsula, Siberia ; winters south to southern Pata- 

 gonia, and from the Mediterranean to South Africa, India, Australia, and New 

 Zealand. 



The knot is cosmopolitan in range and occurs on every continent and on many 

 islands, large and small. It is strong of wing, and when migrating appears not to 

 regard distance, for it spans the territory that separates Grinnell Land and the 

 Straits of Magellan. It is a characteristic bird of the sea beach, and its food is 

 obtained by following the receding waves and seizing the minute crustaceans and 

 mollusks momentarily uncovered by the surf. Apparently, the robin snipe never 

 was so abundant on the Pacific coast as along the Atlantic, but the species promises 

 to last longer on the Pacific because less persecuted there. Enormous bags were 

 formerly made on the eastern coast, more particularly during the last of May and 

 early June. Thus the birds were pursued not only in fall but till near the opening 

 of the nesting season, a sufficient cause of their diminution. In further explana- 

 tion of the present small numbers of the knot, however, the fact counts for much 

 that until recently there have been practically no bag limits for our shorebirds. 

 and many gunners have shot as long as the birds and their ammunition lasted. All 

 shorebirds that associate in large flocks are unsuspicious, as though safety lay 

 in numbers. W'hen the sportsman is to be reckoned with the reverse is true. 

 Easily decoyed by wooden stools, or by the whistled imitation of their own note, or 

 that of the black-bellied plover, a flock of robin snipe will swing in to within gun- 

 shot, and repeat the dangerous experiment two or three times, or until the flock 

 is reduced to a few survivors. 



881 



