356 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
advances and more arrive, they assemble in larger 
flocks, and are then much more wary, and except in 
dirty weather are not to be approached but by aid of 
a gunning punt. Those which arrive in August and 
September usually leave again in October, and very 
large flocks are but rarely seen before the end of 
November.”? Overton, the Blakeney gunner, once shot 
two hundred and thirty knots, twenty-five grey plovers, 
and eighteen redshanks. 
On Breydon these birds are seldom met with late in 
the autumn, after the usual migratory flocks have passed 
on, but Mr. J. HE. Harting, who spent some days at 
Yarmouth, in October, 1867, informs me that on the 
26th he shot a solitary knot on the muds, which he 
had observed in company with a few dunlins a day or 
two before; and this appeared to be the only one then 
remaining in that neighbourhood. In winter their 
plenty or scarcity appears to depend much upon the 
season, as I find by my own notes that during severe 
frost and snow many are sent up to the Norwich market 
from Yarmouth, Blakeney, and the shores of the Wash. 
This was particularly the case during the very severe 
weather which prevailed in February, 1853; January, 
1862; and January, 1867. 
The Rev. C. A. Johns, who has had opportunities 
of observing the species in this county, remarks 
(“British Birds in their Haunts”), “Some authors state 
that it feeds principally early and late in the day, and 
during moonlight nights; but I have seen it on the 
coast of Norfolk, in winter, feeding at all hours of the 
day in company with dunlins, sanderlings, and purple- 
sandpipers, and differing little from these in the mode 
of obtaining its food. But I remarked on several 
occasions that when a flock was disturbed the knots 
often remained behind, being less fearful of the presence 
of man; in consequence of which tardiness in rising 
