KNOT. 233 



ciently long to attain its full breeding dress, and 

 often returns with it only partially changed. It is 

 by no means uncommon, though the range is not so 

 extensive or general as the last ; but at times, and 

 on some of our shores, it appears in flocks of very 

 great numbers in the autumn and winter. After 

 they have recovered from their migration, they are 

 rather shy, and we have often found them difficult 

 to be approached ; at other times, again, we have 

 seen them almost regardless of danger ; and once, in 

 September, when making a circuit of Holy Island, 

 on the Northumbrian coast, we fell in with a large 

 flock, in great part composed of the birds of that 

 year, which allowed an approach within ten yards. 

 They must have been newly arrived from their flight, 

 for, even when disturbed by a shot, they would not 

 remove more than from fifty to one hundred yards, 

 alighting and crowding the tops of the insulated 

 rocks. We procured many specimens with stones, 

 and believe that the whole flock, consisting of seve- 

 ral hundreds, might have been shot. It occurs in 

 a similar manner in Ireland. On the Continent, 

 Mr. Yarrell states, he is unable to trace it farther 

 eastward than France and Germany ; but it is found 

 in Northern and Arctic Europe, in Northern and 

 Arctic America, and we possess a single specimen 

 from New Holland that appears in every way iden- 

 tical. This specimen is either coming into, or re- 

 moving from, the breeding state, being tinted with 

 rufous beneath, and above having the light-grey 

 plumage mixed with dark feathers. 



