KNOT 



305 



This richly coloured and pretty sandpiper with a strange name 

 is one of two species in this order of birds of which the eggs are 

 not known to ornithologists, or do not exist in collections. It is a 

 regular visitor to the British coasts on migration in August, but 

 many birds remain in this country until the following May. In 

 some seasons they are very abundant, especially on the north-east 

 coast of England ; and in former times they were esteemed a 



FIG. 103. KNOT. \ natural size. 



great delicacy, and were netted in large numbers, to be fattened, 

 like dotterels and ruffs and reeves, on bread-and-milk for the 

 table. According to Camden (' Britannia,' 1607), the bird was 

 named after King Canute on account of his excessive fondness for 

 its flesh. Drayton, adopting this explanation of the name, wrote in 

 his ' Polyolbion ' : 



The Knot that called was Canutus Bird of old, 



Of that great King of Danes, his name that still doth hold, 



His apetite to please, that farre and neare was sought, 



For him (as some have sayd) from Denmark, hither brought. 



It is possible that the Danish king introduced the taste for the 

 knot, which lasted down to the end of the seventeenth century. 



X 



