THE 



WILSON BULLETIN 



NO. 105 

 A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OP^ ORNITHOLOGY 



VOL. XXX DECEMBER, 1918 NO. 4 



OLD SERIES VOL. XXX. NEW SERIES VOL. XXV. 



FINDIKG THE NEST OF THE KNOT. 



BY W. ELMER EKBLAW. 



To ornithologists and bird lovers the world over the 

 most important result obtained by the recent Crocker Land 

 Expedition to the Arctic regions was undoubtedly the dis- 

 covery of the nest and eggs of the knot [Trinya canutus). 

 Two full clutches of eggs, the nests in which they were 

 laid, and the sitting birds upon them, were brought back 

 to the American Museum of Natural History of New York. 



Few eggs have been so eagerly sought as those of the 

 knot; for a hundred years or more the nesting-places of 

 this bird, so common on our shores in migration time, had 

 been known to be far arctic and probably circumpolar; al- 

 most every expedition to the North for the last century 

 has been definitely instructed to seek the nest and eggs; 

 yet until this latest American expedition, the knots had 

 foiled all explorers and successfully guarded the secret of 

 their nests. 



To Dr. Harrison J. Hunt, surgeon to the expedition, falls 

 the honor of the first authenticated record of the discov- 

 ery. In the early summer of 1916 he found the nest and 

 newly-laid eggs on a high plateau almost two miles back 

 from Thule, the little Danish trading station on the shore 

 of North Star Bay. His successful find came as the climax 

 to persistent searcli, and study of the habits of tlie knot, 



