422 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



however, occasionally taken in many parts of Eng- 

 land in almost perfect summer plumage, both 

 before its departure in the spring and on its return 

 in the autumn. 



The food of the Knot consists of aquatic insects 

 and the soft animals inhabiting bivalve-shells, small 

 worms and larvse.* It can be kept in confinement 

 without much difficulty, and has been fattened for 

 the market like the Ruff : it may be fed upon bread 

 and milk, small worms and finely chopped raw meat. 

 Meyer thinks it strange that the ease with which it 

 can be kept in confinement has not been taken 

 advantage of in order to obtain specimens of the 

 eggs ; but, from the appearance of some which I saw 

 in the Zoological Gardens in June, I did not think 

 it probable that they would lay, as they had not at 

 that time, long after their usual period, attained 

 their, summer or breeding, plumage, only a very few 

 feathers having changed. I do not think it probable 

 that birds regularly assuming a nuptial plumage in 

 their wild state, and not doing so in confinement, 

 will breed : the Linnet is perhaps a more easily 

 observed example of this peculiarity.! 



But little seems to be known of the nesting habits 



* Yarrell, vol. iii., p. 57 ; Meyer's ' British Birds,' 

 vol. v., p. 68. 



f See notes on Linnet, ante, p. 200. 



