KNOT. 357 



they more than once fell to our guns after their com- 

 panions had flown off. On their first arrival they are 

 said to be so indifferent to the vicinity of human beings, 

 that it is not difficult to knock them down with stones. 

 Their provincial name in Norfolk is the green-legged 

 shank ; the latter name "shank" being applied for short- 

 ness to the red shank."* In proof, also, of their unsuspi- 

 cious nature, Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear make the 

 followmg statement : — " We met with a flock of sixteen 

 in September last [1824] which, though repeatedly 

 shot at, would not leave the spot, and were all killed. 

 Some of them being wounded fell into the water, and 

 swam about with great ease." 



These birds are considered extremely good eating, 

 and in former days appear to have been systematically 

 fattened for the table like quails and ortolans. Sir 

 Thomas Browne describes them as " taken with nets" 

 when "they grow excessively fat, being mewedf and 

 fed with corn. A candle lighted in the room, they 

 feed day and night, and when they are at their height 

 of fatness, they begin to grow lame, and are then 

 killed as at their prime and apt to declme." 



In the L'Estrange "Household Book" knots are 

 twice mentioned with other waders — " Itm pd to hym 

 for a curlewe, a dosyn knotts, a dosyn redschanks and 

 stynts, ij teals — ij^- — ." "Itm pd to the fowler for 

 ijj dosyn and di [half] of knotts, — iiij^- — j^- — ;" and 

 are thus noticed in the Northumberland "Household 



* For a good account of the habits of knots, dunlins, and grey- 

 plovers when feeding, see a paper by Mr. J, Cordeaux, in the 

 " Zoologist " for 1866 (p. 216). 



t To " mew," properly signifying to moult, was in hawking days 

 used in another sense as in this passage, and signified to confine. 

 The places where hawks were kept when shedding their feathers 

 were called "mews," and hence the term apphed to the livery 

 stables in London at the present time. 



