354 BIRDS OF NOEFOLK. 



TRINGA CANUTUS, Linn^us. 



KNOT. 



This species is a regular and at times very numerous 

 visitant to our coast, both in spring and autumn, and 

 occasionally, if detained by a prevalence of north- 

 easterly winds on its northward passage in May,"^ many 

 beautiful specimens, in full summer plumage, are pro- 

 cured, in company with godwits, turnstones, grey- 

 plovers, and other migratory shore birds. This was 

 particularly the case in the cold spring of 1853, which 

 I have before noticed as a memorable season for our 

 local collectors; and at that time, between the 10th 

 and 27th of May, an extraordinary number of red 

 Knots from different parts of the coast were sent up to 

 Norwich to be stuffed. On the 13th of May, as recorded 

 by Mr. J. H. Gurney in the " Zoologist" (p. 3946), " a 

 single gunner, at Yarmouth, procured seventy-three 

 knots all in full, or nearly full, summer dress, besides 

 several others which were obtained by other indi- 

 viduals." On the 14th, nine were killed out of a flock 

 of about a dozen, by a crow-keeper, on what was 

 formerly Salthouse Broad, but then sown with wheat; 

 and these, which I examined at the time, were almost 

 all in: their perfect nuptial dress. Between the 

 14th and 19th, seventeen were received by one of our 

 Norwich birdstuffers from Blakeney, and more inland 

 localities in the *' Broad" district, such as Hickhng, 

 Eockland, and Sutton; these birds, though essentially 

 shore feeders, occasionally frequenting the land at 

 some distance from the coast. Mr. Hunt speaks of 

 them as sometimes met with " far inland ;" and Mr. 



* The specimen from which the figure in Yarrell's "British 

 Birds" was taken, was procured at Yarmouth on the 25th of 

 May, 1820. 



