KNOT. 175 



on board tlie 'Alert/ obtained young in down, as well as their parents, on 

 Grinnell Land, in lat. 82 .|° ; and Mr. Hart, the naturalist of the ' Discovery,' 

 on the same coast, in lat. 81|°, also secured young in down ; but neither 

 of these naturalists procured any eggs. It has also been obtained in Alaska 

 and Greenland. It passes through Iceland on migration, but is not known 

 to breed there. In the Arctic regions of the Old World our information 

 is still more meagre. Hencke observed it in the. delta of the Dwina in 

 summer, but failed to obtain eggs. It has been observed on migration in 

 the valleys of the Kama and the Obb ; but Harvie-Brown and I saw 

 nothing of it in the delta of the Petchora. It is not recorded from 

 either Spitzbergen or Nova Zembla; Finsch failed to observe it on the 

 Yalmal peninsula; nor was I any more fortunate in the delta of the 

 Yenesay. Middendorff saw nothing of it on the Taimur peninsula, except 

 that he picked up a dead bird in autumn, and shot two birds on the 27th of 

 May. Dybowsky only obtained one example, near Lake Baikal, which had 

 been shot on the 24th of August. Middendorff saw flocks of this bird on 

 the 7th of July at the mouth of the Uda, in the Sea of Ochotsk (about 

 lat. 55°) ; and Schrenck obtained two examples on the 29tli of August at 

 the mouth of the Amoor, a few miles to the east of the latter locality. 



The Knot is very rare in the Mediterranean during winter, but in spring 

 and autumn it passes in considerable numbers to and from its winter- 

 quarters on the west coast of Africa, where it occurs as far south as 

 Damara Land. North of the French coast the stream of migration divides, 

 one route taking the west coast of England and Scotland through the 

 Faroes to Iceland and Greenland, but the main route following the Dutch 

 and German coasts through Heligoland or the east coast of Great Britain, 

 through the Orkneys and the Shetlands, to the North Cape. It has only 

 occurred once or twice in India, and not at all in Ceylon or Burma ; but on 

 the west coast of the Pacific it passes Japan and China on migration, to 

 winter in Australia and New Zealand. It does not appear to be recorded 

 from the Pacific coast of America ; but it passes in considerable numbers on 

 migration along the Atlantic coast of that continent, as well as along some 

 of the well-known inland fly-lines, and has been obtained in winter as far 

 south as Brazil. 



The nearest ally of the Knot appears to be Ti'inffa crassirostris, which 

 breeds in Eastern Siberia and winters in Australia, occasionally straying 

 westwards to Burma. It may always be readily distinguished by its 

 somewhat larger size, in winter by its white upper tail-coverts, and in 

 summer by having the breast and flanks barred with black and the 

 chestnut confined to a few feathers on the upper parts. 



The Knot reaches the British coast in small numbers in August, and 

 continues to arrive through the two succeeding months. The date varies 

 somewhat according to the state of the season ; but the young birds are 



