KNOT. 415 



more numerous than on the extensive sand banks and mud 

 flats left bare by the receding tide in the Humber district, 

 and Mr. Cordeaux has described (Zool. 1866, p. 75) the 

 assemblage and movements of thousands upon thousands 

 observed towards sunset on the 4th of November. The 

 Knot is generally distributed along our coasts, with the 

 exception of the west of Scotland and the Hebrides, where, 

 according to Mr. R. Gray, it is comparatively uncommon. 

 In Ireland it is common in spring and autumn, many 

 remaining the winter, in the tidal harbours and estuaries ; 

 and Sir R. Payne-Gallwey says that he once killed a hun- 

 dred and sixty Knots on a sand bank at a shot from his 

 big gun, having mistaken them on a dark evening for 

 Plovers. From a resemblance to the latter, this species 

 is, indeed, not unfrequently spoken of by fowlers as the 

 ' Plover-Knot.' On the autumnal migration birds some- 

 times come round and strike against the lanterns of light- 

 houses ; and the telegraph wire has occasionally proved 

 fatal. 



The Knot visits Iceland in large numbers in May, but 

 there is no authenticated instance of its having bred there. 

 In the small portion of East Greenland which has as yet 

 been visited it was not found, nor does it tarry long in the 

 southern districts of that great Peninsula, but beyond 68" 

 N. lat. it becomes more numerous. In 1820, on Parry's 

 first voyage, Sabine found it breeding in great abundance on 

 Melville Island in the North Georgian or Parry group (Supp. 

 to Appendix, cci,) ; and on Parry's second voyage (Narrative, 

 p. 461) Knots were observed breeding near Quilliam Creek, 

 Melville Peninsula, between the 6th and 17th July, 1823, 

 by the late Captain Lyons of H.M.S. ' Hecla,' who states that 

 they lay four eggs on a tuft of withered grass, without being 

 at the pains of forming any nest. In the Fauna Boreali 

 Americana (Birds, p. 387), Eichardson says the Knot breeds 

 in Hudson's Bay and down to the fifty-fifth parallel ; the 

 eggs are described on the authority of Mr. Hutchins as "of 

 a dun colour fully marked with reddish spots"; but the 

 accuracy of these statements has not yet been corroborated. 



