174 BRITISH BIRDS. 



TRINGA CANUTUS. 

 KNOT. 



Tringa calidris, 

 Tringa calidris nsevia, 



Briss. Orn. v. pp. 226, 230, 233 (1760). 



Tringa calidris grisea, 



Tringa canutus, Briss. Orn. v. p. 258 (1760) ; Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 251 (1766, winter 



plumage) ; et auctorum plurimorum Schlegel, Gray, Hartlaub, Heuglin, 



Dresser, Sounders, &c. 



Tringa calidris, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 252 (1766, immature plumage). 

 Tringa islandica, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. pt. ii. Addenda (1767, summer plumage). 

 Tringa australis, j 



Tringa njevia, 1 Gmel Syst. Nat. i. pp. 679, 681 (1788). 

 Tringa grisea, I 



Tringa ferruginea, Meyer, Taschenb. ii. p. 395 (1810). 

 Tringa rufa, Wils. Amer. Orn. vii. p. 43, pi. 57. fig. 5 (1813). 



Calidris islandica (Linn.), Ross, Voy. of Discovery, ed. 2, ii. App. iv. p. 167 (1819). 

 Canutus islandicus (Linn.), Brehm, Vog. Deittschl. p. 654 (1831). 

 Calidris canutus (Linn.), Gould, B. Eur. iv. pi. 324 (1837). 

 Tringa lomatina, Licht. Nomencl. Av. p. 92 (1854). 

 Tringa cooperi, Baird, Cass. fy Lawr. B. N. Amer. p. 716 (1858). 

 Actodromas cooperi (Baird), Ridgw. Nom. N. Amer. B. p. 44 (1881). 



The Knot is a winter visitor to the British Islands, and frequents the 

 coasts, principally on the east and south of England. In Scotland it is 

 much less common on the west coast than on the east. Most of the birds 

 retire from the northern portion of our islands in winter, especially in 

 severe seasons. In Ireland the Knot is equally well known as a winter 

 visitor. Although so common on the neighbouring coast, the Knot is 

 scarce in the Channel Islands. 



Scarcely any thing is known of the breeding-places of the Knot, and 

 authenticated eggs are entirely unknown in collections. So far as I 

 know, the only man now living who has ever seen an egg of the Knot is 

 Lieut. Greeley, who took one, fully coloured, from the body of a female 

 Knot during his adventurous expedition to the Polar Regions. He told 

 me that it was a very handsome egg, very boldly blotched, and about as 

 large as that of the Common Snipe. In 1820 Sabine found it breeding 

 in great abundance on Melville Island, about lat. 80; in 1823 it was 

 observed breeding on Melville Peninsula, about lat. 67; Richardson 

 (Faun. Bor.-Amer. ii. p. 387) says that it also breeds in Hudson's Bay, 

 as far south as lat. 55 ; and on the 9th of July, 1853, a female example 

 was obtained at Cambridge Bay, in lat. 69, by the surgeon of the 

 ' Enterprise;' but it is not known that any eggs obtained on these 

 expeditions are in any collection. In 1876 Capt. Feilden, the naturalist 



