SANDPIPERS. 241 



one he ever procured, or indeed heard of, in this 

 country. 



THE KNOT (Tringa canutus] is also a common 

 bird, especially in spring and autumn, when it may 

 be found in large numbers along the coast, and in 

 the tidal harbours and estuaries. Some remain all 

 the winter. I once killed one hundred and sixty 

 Knots on a sandbank at a shot with my big gun, 

 having mistaken them on a dark evening for 

 Plovers. 



THE CURLEW SANDPIPER, or Pigmy Curlew, as it 

 is sometimes called (Tringa subarcuata), is rather a 

 rare bird in Ireland, though from its general resem- 

 blance to the Dunlin, when at a little distance, it 

 perhaps often escapes notice. It stands higher on 

 the legs than a Dunlin, and may be always distin- 

 guished when flying by its white upper tail-coverts. 

 The bill, too, is somewhat longer, and curves slightly 

 downwards like that of a Curlew. I have seen from 

 five to eight together on the east coast, and never 

 found it difficult to procure a specimen when wanted. 



Mr. Williams, the Dublin naturalist, tells me that 

 Mr. Millar, of Grafton Street, when out shooting on 

 the Dublin mountains, fired into a number of Pigmy 

 Curlews flying past him, and dropped eight, which 

 he (Mr. Williams) preserved. Ten years since Mr. 

 Williams says he received from Dr. H. L. Cox nine 

 Pigmy Curlews, and four LITTLE STINTS (Tringa 

 minuta\ each species killed by a shot from either 

 barrel of a double gun, and at the same time. 

 Since then no specimen of the Little Stint passed 

 through his hands till September, 1881, when he 

 obtained three from near Clontarf. The Pigmy 



R 



