132 KNOT OR ASH-COLOURED SANDPIPER. 
and this with the same dexterity as several other species. Its flight is 
swift, at times rather elevated, and well sustained. At their first ar- 
rival in autumn, when they are occasionally seen in great numbers in 
the same flock, their aérial evolutions are very beautiful, for, like our 
Parrakeet, Passenger Pigeon, Rice-bird, Red-winged Starling, and other 
birds, they follow each other in their course, with a celerity that seems 
almost incomprehensible, when the individuals are so near each other that 
one might suppose it impossible for them to turn and wheel without inter- 
fering with each other. At such times, their lower and upper parts are 
alternately seen, the flock exhibiting now a dusky appearance, and again 
gleaming like a meteor. 
Many of these young birds continue mottled with dull reddish- 
orange on their lower parts until the winter is far advanced. 'The old 
individuals have their whole upper plumage of a uniform grey, and their 
lower parts white. As those of the first year have their markings at 
that season handsomer than at any other period of their lives, I have 
given the figure of one in preference to that of an adult. 
It has been supposed by some that two different species of Knot 
occur in the United States, but I am of a different opinion. The di- 
mensions of birds of this family, as well as of many others, are extremely 
variable; and, on shooting eight or ten Knots, it would be difficult to 
find two of them having exactly the same size and proportions. If I 
add to this the very remarkable changes of plumage exhibited by birds 
of this family before and after maturity, you will not think it strange 
that Witson should have mistaken the young of the Knot for a sepa- 
rate species from the old bird in its spring dress. Indeed, I am obliged 
to tell you that I have been much puzzled, when, on picking up several 
of these birds from the same flock, I have found some having longer and 
thicker bills than others, with as strange a difference in the size of their 
eyes. These differences I have endeavoured to represent in my plate. 
My friend Joun Bacuman states, that this species is quite abun- 
dant in South Carolina, in its autumn and spring migrations, but that 
he has never seen it there in full plumage. In that country it is 
called the “« May Bird,” which, however, is a name also given to the 
Rice Bird. Along the coasts of our Middle District, it is usually known 
by the name of “* Grey-back.” 
