KNOT. 37 



paler; secondaries, edged with white; tertiaries, long, and 

 deep blackish brown, irregularly margined with reddish brown 

 and yellowish white, in winter white. The feathers of the 

 tail are dark ash brown colour, finely edged with yellowish 

 white or white, the outer feathers paler, the shafts also 

 yellowish white it is of a square shape; upper tail coverts, 

 white tinged with red and edged with white, and with 

 crescent-shaped bars of deep brown or black, in winter white 

 barred in the same way; under tail coverts, white, tinged 

 with red and spotted with black, in winter white. The 

 legs, which are short, and feathered very nearly to the knees, 

 are, as the toes, which are divided without any connecting 

 membrane, bluish black, in winter blackish grey; the hind 

 one turns inward. 



The female is not so bright in colour. 



The young of the first year have the head, crown, neck on 

 the back, and nape, greyish ash-colour, each feather with a 

 semicircular band of greyish black, and outside is another of 

 buff white, which colour appears to tint the whole, and becomes 

 pure white later on in the year, the shafts dark. Chin and 

 throat, white streaked with grey; breast, dull white, tinged with 

 pale reddish buff; back, greyish ash-colour, each feather with 

 two bands of a semicircular shape, the inner one greyish black, 

 the outer buff white, fading, later in the season, into pure 

 white. Primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, paler than in the 

 adijlt bird. 



A white variety of the Knot was shot near Maldon, in Essex, 

 the 13th. of February, 1851. 



