SHORE AND MARSH BIRDS. Knot 



A coastwise Snipe, very handsome and richly feathered. 

 It can be distinguished when skimming over the marsh 

 meadows by its erratic and Swallow-like flight, and at 

 shorter range by its conspicuous white rump. It feeds 

 upon marsh snails, water beetles and worms, such as are 

 obtained in large numbers in the mud at the neck of tide 

 bars and in clam beds. Its flesh is delicate, and it is 

 greatly prized by sportsmen. 



Knot : Tringa canutus, 



Eobin Snipe. 



Length : 10.50 inches. 



Male and Female : Straight bill 1| inches long. Above black, white, 

 ash, and reddish ; crown gray streaked with black ; nape of neck 

 reddish. Below rich chestnut; legs short and thick. Young, 

 the first two or three years until they put on the full plumage, 

 gray, black, and white above, white below, which led to the 

 idea that old males turned gray in winter. Female duller. 



Note : " Wah-quoit ! " and a honk. (G. H. Mackay.) 



Season : Irregular migrant. 



Breeds : In high northern latitudes. 



Bange : Nearly cosmopolitan. 



This Sandpiper may be recognized by its large size and 

 very richly coloured feathers. With us it is a bird of the 

 sea-coast and marshes, but in the Interior States it may be 

 found about the larger lakes and rivers. 



Mr. Averill has shot it in August on the Housatonic 

 meadows, and it may be occasionally seen pattering about 

 the pools on the beach at low tide, in search of small shell- 

 fish and marine insects, which are its usual articles of food 

 and which impart a marshy flavour to this as well as to 

 many similar Shore-birds. 



The Knot is no longer a common Snipe, and any one who 

 reads Mr. George H. Mackay's very interesting monograph 

 upon it, in The Auk for January, 1893, will easily see why. 

 He says, not only have they been wantonly killed on the 

 Cape Cod marshes, by the process known as " fire-lighting," 



239 



