132 BULLETIN 142, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



directly from an excellent authority that lie has seen in the spring, six barrels 

 of these birds (all of which had been taken in this manner) at one time, on 

 the deck of the Cape Cod packet for Boston. He has also seen barrels of them, 

 which had spoiled during the voyage, thrown overboard in Boston Harbor on 

 arrival of the packet. The price of these birds at that time was 10 cents per 

 dozen ; mixed with them would be turnstones and black-bellied plover. Not 

 one of these birds had been shot, all having been taken with the aid of a 

 " fire-light." 



Arthur T. Wayne (1910) says: 



On May 18, 1S95, I saw, on Long Island beach, a flock of these birds which 

 I estimated to contain fully fifteen hundred individuals, while on May 21 of the 

 same year, I observed a flock that had alighted on the beach, and that com- 

 prised without a doubt more than 3,000 birds. 



Excessive shooting, both in spring and fall, reduced this species 

 to a pitiful remnant of its former numbers ; but spring shooting was 

 stopped before it was too late and afterwards this bird was wisely 

 taken off the list of game birds; it has increased slowly since then, 

 but it is far from abundant now and makes only a short stay on 

 Cape Cod. 



Spring. — The main migration route of the knot in spring is north- 

 ward along the Atlantic coast. The first birds usually reach the 

 United States from South America early in April. On the west 

 coast of Florida, in 1925, I took my first birds on April 2, and they 

 were commonest about the middle of April. I have found them 

 very common on the coast of South Carolina as late as May 23. Mr. 

 Mackay (1893) writes: 



They are still found in greater or less numbers along the Atlantic coast 

 south of Chesapeake Bay. Near Charleston, S. C, Mr. William Brewster noted 

 about 150 knots on May 6 and 8, 1SS5, and saw a number of flocks on May 

 13. They were flying by, or were alighted, on Sullivan Island beach. On 

 May 17, 1S83, he noted about 100 of these birds in the same locality. In the 

 spring they pass Charlotte Harbor, Florida, so I am informed, in large num- 

 bers, coming up the coast from the south (a flight on May 26, 1890), at which 

 time they are very tame. They are also more or less numerous near More- 

 head City, North Carolina (where they are known as "beach robins"), from 

 May 15 to 30, their flight being along the beach, just over the surf, at early 

 morning, coming from the east in the neighborhood of Point Lookout, 10 or 

 12 miles away, where they probably resorted to roost. This indicates that 

 these birds were living in that locality. 



On the Massachusetts coast the spring flight comes in May. Mr. 

 Mackay (1893) says: 



The most favorable time to expect them at this season is during fine, soft, 

 south to southwest weather, and formerly they could be expected to pass in 

 numbers beween May 20 and June 5. In former times, when such conditions 

 prevailed, thousands collected on Cape Cod, when they would remain for a few 

 days to a week before resuming migration. 



