38 



THE OOLOCIST. 



Knot's eggs are the Purple Sandpiper 

 and Common Snipe and they are 

 smaller than Snipe's eggs and entire- 

 ly different in character, ground tint 

 and markings. But I have recently 

 examined a pair of reputed Knot's 

 eggs, kindly loaned me by Mr. Wallis, 

 of Weymouth, England. These were 

 also taken in Iceland on June 13, 1901 

 and while they are a trifle larger than 

 my Knot's eggs and of a deeper ashy 

 green ground tint and more heavily 

 spotted, still they bear a strong resem- 

 blance to my eggs of the Knot. The 

 similarity is at once striking. I have 

 seen hundreds of Snipe's eggs and 

 scores of Purple Sandpiper's, not one 

 of which had any resemblance to these 

 reputed Knot's eggs. Then what else 

 can Mr. Wallis' eggs be but those of 

 the Knot? 



I am fully aware that the Knot is a 

 rare bird and only an occasional visit- 

 or to Iceland, but it would appear that 

 a few solitary pairs occasionally re- 

 main in Iceland during the summer, 

 although the majority of the liirds 

 pass on further to the north to breed, 

 and as the Sanderling is known to 

 occasionally nest in Iceland, why 

 should not the Knot do likewise? I 

 have yet another record of a Knot's 

 egg that was taken by myself as far 

 south as Toronto Island, in Ontario, 

 and it greatly resembles the other eggs 

 taken in Iceland, but the ground tint 

 is more ashy green than any other 

 Knot's eggs taken in Iceland. It 

 measures 1.45 x 1.10 and is also finely 

 spotted at the larger end with ashy 

 brown. It was foun(| on May 8, 1897, 

 by myself and two other Toronto Or- 

 nithologists. 



In referring to my note book I find 

 the following entry: 



"May 8, 1897. This evening Mr. 

 Fred Dippie came to my house and re- 

 ported that while he and his brother, 

 Mr. Sydney Dippie were rambling over 

 Toronto Island they Hushed what thev 



took to be a Snipe and found its egg 

 in a depression on the ground, which 

 they left intending to call a week later 

 and get the full clutch. 



The following Saturday afternoon, 

 myself and the Dippie brothers visited 

 the Island, and I took my camera 

 along with the intention of photo- 

 graphing the nest. Judge our dis- 

 appointment in finding thenest forsak- 

 en and still containing the single egg. 

 I saw at a glance it was not an egg of 

 Wilson's Snipe, a bird that never nests 

 so far south as Toronto, and as it 

 greatly resembled my Knot's eggs 

 from Iceland, I could not possibly re- 

 fer it to any other species. The time 

 of the year May 8th, was very early for 

 a Snipe to belaying. And spotted Sand- 

 pipers never have eggs in this locality 

 before the first week in June. This egg 

 was much too large for a spotted Sand- 

 piper's egg; in fact it is as large as a 

 Killdeer, although entirely different 

 to the egg of the latter species, so I 

 consider it safe to name this a genuine 

 egg of the Knot. It corresponds 

 exactly with my reputed Knot's eggs 

 from Iceland." 



Now some Ornithologists may laugh 

 at the idea of an Arctic Bird like the 

 Knot nesting so far south, but they 

 must take into consideration that 

 Knots frequent Toronto Island in Maj' 

 during this migration northward. 

 Several local collections containing 

 skins of the Knot were obtained on Tor- 

 onto Island in May. 



So that it is evident that this Knot 

 had an egg developed and had to lay 

 it and then proceeded along with the 

 others of her species on their flight to 

 their nesting gri)unds in the far north. 

 I am satisfied that l)efore long other 

 eggs of the Knot will be collected on 

 some of the Arctic expeditions and 

 that this will prove that the eggs re- 

 corded by myself and Mr. Wallis from 

 Iceland are genuine eggs of the Knot. 



