434 Scolopacidce. 



1875, some Knots were obtained, but no amount of search was 

 successful in discovering the egg of that bird ; and even Captain 

 Feilden, enthusiastic ornithologist as he was, and determined as he 

 was to unravel the mystery, was baffled in his efforts, though 

 every man on both ships was on the look-out for the nest, and the 

 parent birds in full nuptial plumage, and evidently breeding, were 

 almost daily seen. Again, when Mr. H. Seebohm made his famous 

 expedition to the valley of the Petchora in European Siberia, 

 the Knot was one of the half-dozen birds whose breeding grounds 

 were wrapped in mystery, and whose eggs he especially desired to 

 find; but it was the only bird of the six which he never met with 

 at all in the valley of the Petchora,* and we may be sure it would 

 never have escaped the notice of that keen ornithologist if it had 

 been in that district. Neither was he more successful in regard 

 to this bird in his subsequent adventurous journey to the banks 

 of the Yenesei.f In Norway it is called Isliindsk Strand-Vipa, 

 as if Iceland was its home ; but its nest is quite unknown there. 

 In this country it is a winter migrant, and the mud-flats and 

 sand-banks of the eastern coast literally swarm with the vast 

 flocks of this species ; at one moment they will rise simulta- 

 neously in a compact body, and, after a short flight, settle again 

 in close array on the shore ; then they will run at the extreme 

 odge of the receding tide, and seek their food in the ooze laid bare 

 by the retreating waves. The numbers which compose these 

 great flocks must be immense; they cannot contain less than 

 many thousands, so widespread and at the same time so dense is 

 the cloud, which, with one impulse, takes wing, wheels about with 

 simultaneous movement, and as rapidly settles again at the edge 

 of the waves. This general account of their immense numbers 

 may in some degree prepare the way for a marvellous shot, which 

 I am about to relate ; and which will doubtless seem incredible to 

 those whose experience is confined to inland shooting only, and 

 who are unaccustomed to see the vast flights of birds which occa- 

 sionally collect on our coasts ; but of the truth of which I have 

 satisfied myself, and therefore do not hesitate to publish the 

 * ' Sibeiia in Europe/ p. 2. f ' Siberia in Asia.' 



