SIBERIA IN EUROPE. 



CHAP. I. 



'occupied a large share of the attention of ornithologists. 

 The name of John Wolley stands pre-eminent amongst the 

 discoverers in this department of science. His indefatigable 

 labours in Lapland about twenty years ago are still fresh in 

 the memory of the present generation of ornithologists, who 

 will never cease to regret his untimely death. Notwith- 

 standing his researches, there remained half-a-dozen well- 

 known British birds whose breeding-grounds still con- 

 tinued wrapt in mystery, to solve which has been the 

 ambition of many field naturalists during the past twenty 

 years. These birds, to the discovery of whose eggs special 

 interest seemed to attach, were the Grey Plover, the Little 

 Stint, the Sanderling, the Curlew Sandpiper, the Knot,* and 

 Bewick's Swan. 



* The Knot (Tringa canutus, Linn.) 

 was the only one of these six species 

 of birds which we did not meet with 

 in the valley of the Petchora. It pro- 

 bably breeds on the shores of the Polar 

 basin in both hemispheres, but its eggs 

 are absolutely unknown. On several 

 of the Arctic expeditions the knot has 

 been observed during the breeding 

 season, but no eggs were obtained. 

 Captain Fielden writes (Nares' 'Voyage 

 to the Polar Sea,' Appendix, vol. ii. 

 p. 212): "During the month of July 

 my companions and I often endea- 

 voured to discover the nest of this 

 bird ; but none of us were successful. 

 However, on July 30, 1876, the day 

 before we broke out of our winter 

 quarters [in lat. 82], where we had 

 .been frozen in eleven months, three of 



our seamen, walking by the border of 

 a small lake not far from the ship, 

 came upon an old bird accompanied by 

 three nestlings, which they brought to 

 me. The old bird proved to be a male ; 

 its stomach and those of the young 

 ones were filled with insects. . . . The 

 knot bred in the vicinity of Discovery. 

 Bay, but no eggs were found there, 

 though the young were obtained in all 

 stages of plumage." During the winter 

 the knot is almost cosmopolitan in its 

 range. It is exceedingly common on the 

 shores of Great Britain, and is more 

 or less frequently obtained in various 

 parts of Europe, Africa, South Asia, and 

 even in Australia and New Zealand. On 

 the American continent it is found on 

 both coasts, occasionally straying as far 

 as the South American shores. 



