76 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



The note of the Knot is a short low whistle, 

 constantly uttered at all seasons of the year, both on 

 the ground and on wing, and the conversation of a 

 great flock of these birds heard at a distance has 

 some resemblance to the chatter of children, though 

 not varied by the yells with which the youth of our 

 species so often express delight and other emotions. 

 Where a little rill of fresh water trickles to the sea 

 through tidal muds at low-water time, the Knots 

 congregate in force, and retire at high-water to sand- 

 bars and rocks, upon which latter they sometimes 

 crowd so closely as to give the impression that a 

 well-known black mass of stone has suddenly changed 

 its colour and become red or grey according to the 

 season. 



The name of Knot is by some authors supposed to 

 have been bestowed on account of the predilection 

 of King Knut (Canute) for these birds as a delicacy 

 for the table, but I cannot help thinking that if there 

 is any connection between the bird and the Danish 

 King it is more probably founded on the well-known 

 legend of the rising tide having wetted the feet of 

 the Dane with as little respect as it daily does those 

 of the birds that frequent our shores. It is of course 

 not only possible, but very probable, that this bird 

 may often occur within our limits, for I consider the 

 whole valley of the Nen as coming within the scope 

 of these Notes, but to most gamekeepers any bird 

 with a long beak that is not a Woodcock or a Snipe 

 is " some sort of a Sandpiper," whose identity is of 

 no consequence, and who, if killed, is as likely to 

 figure on the " vermin tree," or in the Ferret-hutch, 

 as in the window of the local bird-stuflftng barber. 



In January 1891 I received an apparently fresh skin 



