I20 PLOVER GROUP 



in company on the ridges or hummocks of shingle and spits of 

 hard sand. The characteristically musical note of the knot has been 

 compared to the repetition of the syllables iui-tui, tui-tni. The food 

 of this species is generally similar to that of other waders with similar 

 habits, but univalve molluscs of the genera Turbo and Rissoa ' are 

 stated to form a favourite portion of the diet. The eggs of the knot 

 were not definitely identified till the year 1905, although there is little 

 doubt some few examples had been obtained previously. In the year 

 referred to there were exhibited in London a dozen knots' eggs and a 

 few nestlings, which had been obtained on the Taimur Peninsula and 

 the New Siberian Islands, together with the parent birds. Earlier in 

 the same year a nest and eggs obtained in Iceland in 1898 were 

 described as those of the knot ; and there are two reported instances 

 of the species having laid in captivity in England. 



Purnle '^\'\<t purple sandpiper, which has been incorrectly 



SandDioer identified with the Tringa striata of Linnreus, and 

 (Tring-a referred to by some ornithologists under that name, is 



maritima) regarded by others as entitled to represent a genus b\' 

 itself, and is accordingly termed Arquatella niaritivia. 

 It differs, however, structurally from the knot merely by the prolongation 

 and pointing of the middle tail-feathers, while from the dunlin (in which 

 this feature occurs) it is distinguished by the shortness of the lower 

 segment of the leg, which is inferior in length to the middle toe, and 

 by the fact that the feathering of the leg commences at the lower end 

 of the second segment in place of some considerable distance above. 

 Such differences are far too trivial to rank as grounds for the generic 

 separation of nearly allied species of birds. The purple sandpiper in 

 its typical form apparently breeds throughout a large extent of the 

 Arctic regions, and in winter ranges over extensive areas on the two 

 sides of the North Atlantic, some of its representatives reaching as 

 far south as the Bermudas in the western, and the shores of the 

 Mediterranean in the eastern hemisphere. Such individuals may be 

 regarded, however, as specially lu.xurious birds, for the species as a 

 whole is a remarkably hardy one, the great majority of the members 

 of which travel a comparatively short distance southwards for the cold 

 months, some being found at that season even as far north as the 

 western coast of Scandinavia. To the British Islands this wader 

 chiefly resorts for the winter, but is a somewhat uncertain and 

 irregularly distributed visitor, much more common in some seasons 



' In one wcll-knnwn hook on Hritish hinls, these are referrcii to as l)ivalve molluscs ! 



