140 GRALLATORES. TRINGA. . Knorr. 
rearing their young. Previous to such departure, some of 
the earlier birds, or those that first feel the influence of the 
season, partly or totally acquire the nuptial livery—a plum- 
age altogether unlike the winter dress, and in which state 
this species has been described as the Aberdeen or Red Sand- 
piper (T'ringu Islandica). 'The polar migration of the Knot 
extends to very high latitudes, as it is enumerated by Cap- 
tain Sasine and others in the list of birds inhabiting the 
icy shores of Greenland and Spitzbergen. It is also com- 
mon to the continent of North America, and is described by 
Witson under the title of the Ash-coloured Sandpiper, be- 
ing the plumage of the young of the year (in which state it 
appears upon these coasts in September and October in its 
flight southwards), and again as the Ied-breasted Sand- 
piper, on its return to Hudson’s Bay and other breeding- 
stations in April and May. By Lrewsy, and other subse- 
quent compilers, Knots are described as visiting the fens of 
Lincolnshire, and being there taken in vast numbers by nets, 
in the same manner as the Ruff. This, however, is not the 
fact, as it is upon the sea-coast of that county they appear, 
and not in the fens of the interior. This plan of taking them 
has also been long abandoned, as Monracu mentions, in his 
Ornithological Dictionary, that the noted Ruff-feeders of that 
county assured him upwards of twenty years had elapsed at 
that time since any of these birds had been taken by means 
of nets. The flesh is tender, delicate, and well-flavoured, per- 
haps scarcely inferior to that of the Ruff. In former times, 
they were caught alive, kept for a certain time in confinement 
upon the same kind of food as the Ruff, and are said to have 
thriven equally well. On their arrival in autumn they are 
very tame, and admit of a near approach, as I have always 
found, upon the extensive sands between the mainland and 
Holy Island, subject to the alternate flowing and receding 
of the tide. During high-water, they retire in great num- 
bers to a small island at the mouth of the harbour, where I 
have seen great slaughter made amongst them, the survivors 
