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BREEDING OF THE KNOT IN GRINNELL LAND. 



communicated by 

 Colonel H, W. FEILDEN, c.b. 



The death of Rear- Admiral Robert E. Peary, United States 

 Navy, which took place at Washington, D.C., on the 19th 

 February, 1920, removes from amongst us one of the greatest 

 of the world's explorers. 



As every serious naturalist and ornithologist must be more 

 or less of a geographer, we search the writings of the men 

 who describe unknown or little known portions of the earth's 

 surface for enlightenment in regard to its natural products, 



Peary was not a trained naturalist, but throughout his 

 travels over the Arctic world we find the discoverer of the 

 North Pole a careful and accurate observer of animate and 

 inanimate life. It is truly commendable that a man occupied 

 as Peary was in geographical discoveries of surpassing excel- 

 lence should have found occasions to make ornithological 

 observations and bring back notes and photographs of 

 considerable interest. For this reason I think the readers 

 of British Birds will value the notes made by the late Admiral 

 Peary on the nesting of the Knot {Erolia canutus) in Grinnell 

 Land and a reproduction of some of the beautiful photographs 

 which he most kindly sent me some ten years ago. 



The nests and eggs of the Knot were obtained by Peary 

 in the vicinity of Floeberg Beach where the " Nares " expedi- 

 tion of 1875-76 wintered on the exposed coast of Grinnell 

 Land north of the 82 "" N. lat., and where Peary, on the 

 " Roosevelt," wintered in 1908 and 1909 at Cape Sheridan 

 some three or four miles farther north, and which was the 

 base for his ever-memorable adventure to the North Pole, 



The Knot is found sparingly as a breeding species on the 

 shores of Grinnell Land, extending its range along the eighty- 

 third parallel, facing the Polar Ocean, to the extreme limit 

 of that land. As it breeds on the islands to the north of 

 Siberia, on the opposite side of the globe to Grinnell Land, 

 we may infer that it is circumpolar in its most northern 

 breeding distribution. The area in which Peary obtained 

 the nest and eggs of the Knot is the same which we searched 

 unsuccessfully for nests and eggs in 1876, though we obtained 

 the young in down. 



Probably the reason why we failed in 1876 to obtain the 

 eggs was due to our ignorance of the localities selected by 

 the birds for nesting. We saw the birds circling over and 



