Shore-bird Shooting 359 



As it breeds in the remotest Arctic regions, its 

 nest has seldom been taken. An egg from Fort 

 Conger, latitude 81 44", was brought to Wash- 

 ington by Lieutenant Greely. 1 It was light pea- 

 green, closely spotted with small specks of brown, 

 and measured i.io by i inches. The knot has 

 been seen breeding on the North Georgian 

 Islands and the Melville Peninsula. The eggs 

 are placed in a depression on the ground or in 

 a clump of grass. " When courting, these birds 

 play with each other on the wing and upon the 

 ground, in the most interesting manner, pursuing, 

 avoiding, and encouraging one another; while 

 the clear, sweet, flutelike whistle of the male is 

 frequently heard." When the young are hatched 

 both parents go through the usual "wounded-bird" 

 manoeuvre to draw attention from their young. 

 The adult birds appear on the Atlantic Coast of 

 the United States early in August and are most 

 abundant, perhaps, about the tenth of the month ; 

 but the full, ruddy plumage of the spring is faded, 

 and the paler winter dress is more or less evident 



1 The egg taken at Fort Conger, Mr. Seebohn believed to be 

 wrongly identified on account of its small size, and that it was rather 

 an egg of the semipalmated sandpiper, which " it exactly resembles 

 in size and color." But it is stated that the parent was taken with 

 this egg. An egg, now in the British Museum, believed to belong 

 to this species, is one of a set of four procured with the parent bird, 

 near Disco, Greenland, in 1875. This egg resembles that of a snipe, 

 and measures 1.60 by i.io inches. 



