KNOT. 307 
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 
following 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 mewed}+ 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 decline.” 
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 — ijs; —.” “Itm pd to the fowler for 
ijj dosyn and di [half] of knotts, — ijs- — j4. —;” 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 
“ Zovlogist ” for 1866 (p. 216). 
+ 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 applied to the livery 
stables in London at the present time. 
