36 KNOT. 
dozen have been taken at once. They are kept without 
much difficulty in confinement. 
They fly with much power, and with little apparent exertion, 
straight forward, with regular strokes of the wings, and 
commonly not high above the surface. On the ground they 
also move about nimbly. 
They feed on marine insects and their larve, and the smaller 
shell-fish. These they seek for early and late in the day, and 
during moonlight nights, reposing, or moving about but little 
while the sun is up. 
The note is only a ‘twee, twee,’ expressed in a sharp high 
tone. 
A tuft of grass serves as a depository for the eggs. 
They are stated to be four in number, of a light yellowish 
brown colour, marked at the larger end with grey and reddish 
spots, forming more or less of a belt, and less spotted towards 
the smaller end. 
Male; weight, about four ounces and a half; length, aad 
ten inches; bill, dusky black at the tip, fading into reddish 
at thegbase; between it and the eye is a dusky streak, and 
a white one over the eye in winter. Iris, hazel; forehead, 
reddish brown streaked with dark brown, in winter white; 
head on the sides, chesnut red with a few dark brown spots 
before and behind the eye, in winter the former colour 
becomes white; on the crown, neck on the back, and nape, 
reddish brown, streaked with dark brown or black, and 
interspersed with specks of white, in winter light brownish 
grey with the shafts of the feathers darker, and so on the 
front and sides of the neck. Chin, throat, and breast, rich 
reddish chesnut, in winter white, the latter slightly streaked 
across with grey, and waved with the same on the sides. 
Back, blackish on the centre of the feathers, which are barred 
and varied with reddish brown, and margined and tipped with 
white, in winter it is greyish ash-colour with the feather 
shafts darker, the lower part white. 
The wings have the first quill feather the longest; they 
extend in their stretch to one foot seven inches; greater 
wing coverts, greyish ash-colour, in winter tipped with white, 
forming a bar across the wings when extended; lesser wing 
coverts, dusky black with reddish brown and white margins 
to the feathers, in winter greyisn asa-colour, and the white 
tips form a bar across the wing. Primaries, greyish or 
brownish black, with broad white shafts, the imner webs 
