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KNOT OR ASH-COLOURED SANDPIPER. 
TRINGA ISLANDICA, Linn. 
PLATE CCCXV. Apuvut 1n SUMMER AND WINTER. 
Tue Knot, good Reader, is a handsome and interesting species, 
whether in its spring or in its winter plumage, and, provided it be young 
and fat, is always welcome to the palate of the connoisseur in dainties. 
As to its habits, however, during the breeding season, I am sorry to 
inform you that I know nothing at all, for in Labrador, whither I went 
to examine them, I did not find a single individual. I have been in- 
formed that several students of nature have visited its breeding places ; 
but why they have given us no information on the subject, seeing that 
not only you and I, but many persons besides, would be glad to hear 
about it, is what we cannot account for. 
I do not wish you to infer from these remarks, that the persons 
alluded to are the only ones who have neglected to note down on 
the spot observations which might be interesting and useful. I my- 
self am very conscious of my own remissness in this respect, and deeply 
regret the many opportunities of studying nature which have been 
in a manner lost to me, on account of a temporary supineness which 
has seized upon me, at the very moment when the objects of my pur- 
suit were placed within my reach by that bountiful Being to whom we 
owe all our earthly enjoyments, and all our hopes of that future hap- 
piness which we strive to merit. 
I have traced the Knot along the shores of our Atlantic states, from 
Texas to the entrance of the Bay of Fundy, in the months of April 
and May, and again in the autumnal months. I have also found it in 
winter in East Florida, and therefore feel confident that some of the 
“species do not proceed beyond our southern limits at that season. 
Whilst on the Bay of Galveston, in Texas, in April 1837, I daily ob- 
served groups of Knots arriving there, and proceeding eastward, mean- 
dering along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. In the interior of the 
United States I never observed one, and for this reason I am in- 
clined to think that the species moves northward along the coast. But 
as I did not find any in Nova Scotia, Labrador, or Newfoundland, I 
