^gg*] MACKAY on the Knot. 3 \ 



lines or marks ; the lower parts and abdomen are white. This 

 stage of plumage seems constant with only a slight occasional 

 variation. I cannot say as much, however, for the plumage of 

 the older birds. A considerable portion of these young birds 

 are smaller, while some are about the same size as the adults. 



Full-plumaged specimens of the Knot are even now not easy 

 to obtain in New England, and the day is not far distant, if it is 

 not already here, when the fine series belonging to Mr. William 

 Brewster will be a prize indeed. To him I am much indebted 

 for their use, also for being able to refer to several of them which, 

 while they are not all I could desire as regards dates of capture, 

 are, together with a few others I have, the best I am able to obtain 

 at this time, to illustrate the point at which I take issue, if the 

 old birds migrate north in June, in their full spring plumage, 

 when they return from the middle of July to September they 

 would have changed, I should suppose, at least in part, if the old 

 statement is correct, into the so-called winter plumage of gray 

 above and white underneath. How is it, then, that sportsmen 

 who have shot these birds all their lives have been able to take so 

 many in full adult plumage on Cape Cod in July, August, Sep- 

 tember, and occasionally in October? The following specimens 

 are in Mr. Brewster's collection. No. 18,945 ' s a m ale, but not 

 an old bird, taken Oct. 6, 1887, at Monomy Island, Cape Cod, 

 by J. C. Cahoon. The breast and lower parts of this bird are 

 washed with pale cinnamon red. No. 19,188, taken at same 

 place by same collector, is a rather young bird with only a cin- 

 namon shading on breast and lower parts. No. 12,727, a male 

 taken at Shelter Island, N. Y., Sept. 6, 1883, is quite an old 

 bird and has considerable cinnamon red on breast and lower parts. 

 No. 1363 (Bangs collection), a young bird taken at Isles of 

 Shoals, Aug. 24, 1S77, has only a few red feathers on the breast. 

 The Smithsonian Institution has a female, No. 78,419, taken 

 Sept. 1, 1879, at Big Pass, Florida, which has the entire lower 

 parts, including throat, pale cinnamon red ; it is not an adult, 

 however. I have an adult male taken by N. E. Gould on July 

 15, 1889, at Chatham, Mass. ; the entire lower parts from the 

 bill are of a clear deep vinaceous cinnamon, without a white 

 feather. I have a specimen collected by J. C. Cahoon, July 30, 

 18S6, on Cape Cod ; it is an adult female with lower parts cinna- 

 mon red from base of bill, with a few white feathers intermixed. 

 s 



