416 scolopacidj:. 



The late Surgeon Anderson of H.M.S. ' Enterprise ' shot 

 a female bird in Cambridge Bay, lat. 69° N., on the 9th 

 July, 1853 ; but none of these earlier explorers appear to 

 have brought back any eggs of the species. 



On the late Arctic Expedition Major H. W. Feilden, 

 naturalist to H.M.S. ' Alert,' when camped on Grinnell 

 Land, iu 82° 33' N. lat., on 5th June, 1876, observed the 

 arrival of a flock of about fourteen, which alighted on bare 

 patches and fed eagerly on the buds of Saxifraga oppositifolia . 

 Subsequently the birds arrived in considerable numbers, 

 beginning to mate immediately, and at times two males 

 might be seen following a single female ; at this season 

 they soar high in the air like the Common Snipe, and when 

 descending from a height beat their wings behind the back 

 with a rapid motion which produces a loud whirring noise. 

 On the 30th July, 1876, an old bird accompanied by three 

 nestlings was obtained on the border of a small lake not far 

 from the ' Alert.' The old bird proved to be a male ; its 

 stomach, and those of the young ones, were filled with 

 insects (Ibis, 1877, p. 407). Mr. H. Chichester Hart, 

 naturalist to H.M.S. ' Discovery,' obtained in 81° 44' N. 

 lat. a brood of four, disturbed from the nest, on the 11th 

 July. The nest was placed under a large flat stone, resting 

 on two others, which formed a sort of gangway; it was 

 merely of leaves and dry grass, loosely laid together on the 

 earth by the edge of a stream ; but no trace of the eggshells 

 was found. Upon the following day three more young were 

 caught ; these were apparently a couple of days out of the 

 shell, grotesque little things, very lively and active, with large 

 dark eyes, the body very small, and the wing-pinions just 

 showing. Their feet were almost as large as those of the 

 full-grown bird, and they were able to run at a marvellous 

 rate. Both the young broods were found three or more 

 miles inland, and in each case close to a stream (Zool. 1880, 

 p. 205). A pair of adults and three downy nestlings form a 

 beautiful mounted group in the Natural History Department 

 of the British Museum. 



The distribution of the Knot in the Arctic regions is far 



