PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 431 



among the minor coverts are some black, with red margins. Similarly, some of 

 the long inner secondaries are black, margined with red. The whole of the under 

 parts in the most brilliantly coloured specimens are of a rich deep bay, but commonly 

 the abdomen and under tail-coverts are more or less white. This is apparently 

 always the case with the females, wherein the red of the under parts generally is 

 paler. In the winter dress the upper parts are of an ash-grey colour, finely striated 

 on the crown and interscapulars with darker grey. The wing-coverts are darker 

 than the mantle, and have white margins ; further, the major coverts both of the 

 secondaries and primaries are broadly tipped with white. The throat, breast, 

 and abdomen are white, the sides of the neck white with ash-coloured striations, 

 while the flanks are white with arrow-shaped marginal bands, and shaft-streaks 

 of dark grey. The rump is dark grey, while the tail-coverts are white heavily 

 barred with black. Immature birds resemble adults in winter plumage, but have 

 a buff tinge on the crown and scapulars, which have white tips enclosing a sub- 

 marginal band of black. The wing-coverts have a submarginal line of dark slate- 

 grey, and buff -white tips, the major coverts having a distinct subterminal bar of 

 slate-grey on the innermost feathers all are tipped with white : those of the hand 

 are also white-tipped. The primaries have white shafts, and the innermost a 

 narrow white outer edge. The under parts are buffish white, striated on the neck 

 and fore-breast with grey. On the breast feathers, however, the central portion 

 of the feather, from the base to the distal one-third, is dark grey, for the remaining 

 exposed portion of the feathers the grey is confined to the shaft. Some feathers 

 in this region, however, are white, with a narrow submarginal spur-shaped line 

 of black. The flanks are irregularly barred and mottled dark grey, while the breast 

 is more or less conspicuously tinged with buff. The young in down are grey above, 

 marbled with rufous, dark brown, and buff, and " powdered " on the back with 

 buff. There is no recognisable pattern, save a median line of dark brown above 

 the beak, a dark loral streak, and a dark malar streak. The under parts are of a 

 dull white, [w. p. p.] 



2. Distribution. The knot is said to have bred occasionally on Iceland 

 (Ibis, 1905, p. 105, etc.), but has not been found nesting on Spitsbergen or off the 

 northern shores of Europe. Dr. Walter, however, obtained the first authenticated 

 eggs on the Taimyr Peninsula in 1901, and in 1902 Mr. Birulia also obtained eggs 

 on the New Siberian Isles. In the New World A. L. Manniche found it breeding 

 not uncommonly in North-east Greenland, but was unable to find the nest. Colonel 

 Feilden and Mr. H. C. Hart met with breeding pairs on the Arctic Expedition of 



