118 CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 



Immense flocks formerly showed themselves on the 

 mudbanks on our southern and eastern coast during 

 May, remaining only for a tide or two to rest, and then 

 resuming their journey to their breeding-grounds in 

 the unexplored regions of the far north. 



At the present time, however, a few straggling 

 parties of at most a dozen or twenty birds are all 

 that are usually observed ; and in the spring of 1871 

 but half a dozen full-plumaged Knots were seen on 

 Breydon mudflats between the 5th of May and the 6th 

 of June. 



The specimens in the case were obtained in Brey- 

 don, near Yarmouth two in May, 1871, and the 

 remainder in May, 1873. 



KNOT. (IMMATURE, AUTUMN.) 

 Case 137. 



The young Knots that visit us in the autumn generally 

 make their first appearance in this country about the 

 end of July, and continue arriving for six or eight 

 Yvreeks longer. In 1868, however, I met with several 

 large flocks composed entirely of immature birds on 

 both the Sutherland and Koss-shire shores of the 

 Dornoch Firth as early as the 8th of July. 



Though the Knot is at all seasons one of the most 

 accessible of our mud-birds, the young on their first 

 arrival in the autumn occasionally suffer themselves to 

 be shot at time after time without making the slightest 

 attempt to escape, the survivors of the flock simply 

 rising on wing at each discharge, and, after a short 

 flight, settling again with the dead and wounded. 



When shooting on the mudbanks, I always make 



