356 BIRDS OF NORFOLK:. 



advances and more arrive, they assemble in larger 

 flocks, and are then much more wary, and except in 

 dirty weather are not to be approached but by aid of 

 a gunning punt. Those which arrive in August and 

 September usually leave again in October, and very 

 large flocks are but rarely seen before the end of 

 November." Overton, the Blakeney gunner, once shot 

 two hundred and thirty knots, twenty-five grey plovers, 

 and eighteen redshanks. 



On Breydon these birds are seldom met with late in 

 the autumn, after the usual migratory flocks have passed 

 on, but Mr. J. E. Harting, who spent some days at 

 Yarmouth, in October, 1867, informs me that on the 

 26th he shot a solitary knot on the muds, which he 

 had observed in company with a few dunlins a day or 

 two before ; and this appeared to be the only one then 

 remaining in that neighbourhood. In whiter their 

 plenty or scarcity appears to depend much upon the 

 season, as I find by my own notes that during severe 

 frost and snow many are sent up to the Norwich market 

 from Yarmouth, Blakeney, and the shores of the Wash. 

 This was particularly the case during the very severe 

 weather which prevailed in February, 1853 ; January, 

 1862 ; and January, 1867. 



The Rev. C. A. Johns, who has had opportunities 

 of observing the species in this county, remarks 

 ("British Birds in their Haunts"), "Some authors state 

 that it feeds principally early and late in the day, and 

 during moonlight nights; but I have seen it on the 

 coast of Norfolk, in winter, feeding at all hours of the 

 day in company with dunlins, sanderlings, and purple- 

 sandpipers, and differing little from these in the mode 

 of obtaining its food. But I remarked on several 

 occasions that when a flock was disturbed the knots 

 often remained behind, being less fearful of the presence 

 of man; in consequence of which tardiness in rising 



