232 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



culmen, which widens slightly towards the end. The Knots 

 may be distinguished from the Dunlins by the shape of the tail, 

 which is square, with the middle feathers not prolonged. The 

 inner secondaries also are shorter, and the distance between 

 their tips and the tips of the primaries is more than the length 

 of the tarsus. 



I. THE KNOT. TRINGA CANUTUS. 



Tringa canutns^ Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 251 (1766) ; Macgill. 

 Brit. B. iv. p. 185 (1852) ; Dresser, B. Eur. viii. p. 77 pis. 

 555, 556 (1877); B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 171 (1883); 

 Saunders, ed. Yarrell's Brit. B. iii. p. 413 (1883); See- 

 bohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 174 (1885) ; Saunders, Man. 

 Brit. B. p. 581 (1889); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part 

 xii. (1890). 



Adult Male in Winter Plumage. General colour above ashy- 

 grey, perfectly uniform except on the rump, where there are a 

 few dusky bars; upper tail-coverts white, barred across with 

 black ; wing-coverts ashy like the back, except the marginal 

 coverts, which are dusky-brown, the median series also with 

 dusky centres, the greater series tipped with white ; bastard- 

 wing and primary-coverts black, the inner ones broadly tipped 

 with white ; quills dull ashy-brown, blackish on the outer web 

 and at the tip of the inner web, the shafts white, the inner pri- 

 maries plainly edged with white near the base of the outer web ; 

 the inner secondaries ashy-brown like the back ; tail ashy-grey, 

 with whitish shafts to the feathers ; crown of head ashy-grey, 

 slightly mottled with dusky centres to the feathers ; lores dusky- 

 grey, surmounted by a broad streak of white, continued into a 

 narrow white eyebrow, slightly streaked with dusky lines ; sides 

 of face white, with narrow dusky streaks, the upper margin of 

 the ear-coverts ashy-grey ; under surface of body white, the chin 

 unspotted, but the throat streaked, and the fore-neck and chest 

 mottled, with dusky spots or bars, the sides of the neck and of 

 the chest dull ashy-brown ; the flanks white, with irregular bars 

 or arrow-head marks of dusky-brown ; under wing-coverts 

 white, the axillaries with a few dusky bars; lower primary-coverts 

 and quill-lining ashy-grey. Total length, 9 inches; culmen, 

 1-3 ; wing, 6-1 ; tail, 2-3; tarsus, 1-2. 



