124 A MANUAL OF THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



is longer than the metatarsus, and a little more than half the length of the tail. 

 The wings are long and very pointed, the first primary longest. The tail is short 

 and even less than half the length of the wing. The tarsus is short and stout, 

 regularly scutellate in front and behind ; it is about the same length or a little less 

 than the culmen, but longer than the middle toe. The toes are short, strong, and 

 widely margined, though cleft to the base ; the middle toe is about two-thirds the 

 length of the tarsus. A strong hind -toe and claw are present. 



.85. Calidris canutus. KNOT. 



[Tringa canutus Linn6, Syst. Nat., 10th ed., p. 149, Jan. 1st, 1758 : Europe. Extra-limital.] 

 Mathews, Vol. III., pt. 3, pi. 163, Aug. 18th, 1913. 



Canutus canutus rogersi Mathews, Birds Austr., Vol. III., pt. 3, p. 270, Aug. 18th, 1913 : 

 Japan. 



DISTRIBUTION. Winter visitor to Australia, breeding in the northern hemisphere. 



Adult male in summer-plumage. Sides of face, sides of crown, throat, and 

 tinder-surface rufous, abdomen white, and the under tail-coverts have narrow black 

 streaks ; axillaries white with brown bars ; under wing-coverts white with small 

 dark frecklings ; the top of the head black with rufous margins to the feathers ; 

 hind-neck grey with dark shaft-lines ; back and scapulars black with chestnut or 

 white edgings to the feathers of the former and twin spots on the latter ; lesser upper 

 wing-coverts, median, and the greater series pale brown, the latter tipped with white ; 

 bastard-wing dark brown, as also the primary -co verts, which have white tips ; 

 primary -quills dark brown, black at the tips and white shafts ; secondaries paler 

 brown with white tips and whitish inner webs, the long innermost feathers like the 

 back ; rump grey with whitish tips to the feathers ; upper tail-coverts white, barred 

 and longitudinally lined with black ; tail-feathers grey ; eyes brown ; feet olive- 

 brown ; bill black. Total length 258 mm. ; culmen 31, wing 156, tail 64, tarsus 31. 



Adult female in summer-plumage. Very similar to the adult male. 



Adult male in winter-plumage. Ash-grey above, with narrow dark shaft-lines 

 to the feathers ; wings much the same as that of the summer-plumage ; upper tail- 

 oo verts also similar but not so strongly pronounced ; sides of face, throat, and entire 

 iinder-surface white, with minute pale brown shaft-streaks on the sides of the face 

 and frecklings of the same colour on the breast and sides of the body and, more 

 sparsely, on the abdomen and under tail-coverts ; axillaries longitudinally marked 

 with brown and white. 



Adult female in winter-plumage. Similar to the adult male. 



Immature. Differs from the winter-plumage in having black submarginal 

 lines fringed with white to the feathers of the back and wings, which are brown ; 

 under parts huffish-white, with an indistinct chest band of darker shade. 



Nestling in down. Fore-head warm buff, with a central black line ; over the 

 eye a double black line ; crown, from centre backwards, black slightly varied with 

 rufous and dotted with buff ; nape creamy-buff, slightly varied with blackish ; 

 upper-parts black, slightly varied with reddish-brown, and profusely dotted with 

 creamy -white ; under parts very slightly washed with warm buff. Specimens in 

 the British Museum, probably through exposure, are greyish-brown, mottled with 

 black and spangled with white ; under parts nearly white. 



Nest. In a hollow in the ground, lined with lichen. 



Eggs. Clutch, four ; greenish-grey, finely spotted all over with pale inky 

 shell markings and blackish surface spots, sometimes the latter larger and bolder 

 at the larger end ; somewhat variable in coloration. Average measurements : axis 

 43 mm., diameter 30 mm. 



Breeding -season . July . 



