140 GRALLATORES. TRINGA. KNOT. 



rearing their young. Previous to such departure, some of 

 the earlier birds, or those that first feel the influence of the 

 season, partly or totally acquire the nuptial livery a plum- 

 age altogether unlike the winter dress, and in which state 

 this species has been described as the Aberdeen or Red Sand- 

 piper (Tringa Islandica). The polar migration of the Knot 

 extends to very high latitudes, as it is enumerated by Cap- 

 tain SABINE and others in the list of birds inhabiting the 

 icy shores of Greenland and Spitzbergen. It is also com- 

 mon to the continent of North America, and is described by 

 WILSON under the title of the Ash-coloured Sandpiper, be- 

 ing the plumage of the young of the year (in which state it 

 appears upon these coasts in September and October in its 

 flight southwards), and again as the Red-breasted Sand- 

 piper, on its return to Hudson's Bay and other breeding- 

 stations in April and May. By LEWIN, and other subse- 

 quent compilers, Knots are described as visiting the fens of 

 Lincolnshire, and being there taken in vast numbers by nets, 

 in the same manner as the Ruff. This, however, is not the 

 fact, as it is upon the sea-coast of that county they appear, 

 and not in the fens of the interior. This plan of taking them 

 has also been long abandoned, as MONTAGU mentions, in his 

 Ornithological Dictionary, that the noted Ruff-feeders of that 

 county assured him upwards of twenty years had elapsed at 

 that time since any of these birds had been taken by means 

 of nets. The flesh is tender, delicate, and well-flavoured, per- 

 haps scarcely inferior to that of the Ruff. In former times, 

 they were caught alive, kept for a certain time in confinement 

 upon the same kind of food as the Ruff, and are said to have 

 thriven equally well. On their arrival in autumn they are 

 very tame, and admit of a near approach, as I have always 

 found, upon the extensive sands between the mainland and 

 Holy Island, subject to the alternate flowing and receding 

 of the tide. During high-water, they retire in great num- 

 bers to a small island at the mouth of the harbour, where I 

 have seen great slaughter made amongst them, the survivors 



