

Class II. KNOT SANDPIPER. 7t 



These birds, when fattened, are preferred by 

 some to the ruffs themselves. They are taken 

 in great numbers on the coasts of Lincolnshire, 

 in nets such as are employed in taking ruffs ; 

 with two or three dozens of stales of wood 

 painted like the birds, placed within : fourteen 

 dozen have been taken at once. Their season 

 is from the beginning of August to that of No- 

 'vember. They disappear with the first frosts. 

 Camden"^ says they derive their name from king 

 Canute, Ktiute, or Knout, as he is sometimes 

 called ; probably because they were a favourite 

 dish with that monarch. We know that he kept 

 the feast of the purification of the Virgin Mary 

 with great pomp and magnificence at Ely, and 

 this being one of the fen birds, it is not unlikely 

 but he met with it there. | Shakespeare, in his 

 Othello, speaking of Roderigo (if Mr. Theobald's 

 reading is just) makes the J Knot an emblem of 

 a dupe : 



** I have rubb'd this young Knot almost to the sense j '' '■ 

 " And he grows angry." Othello, if' '^ 



* Camden Brit. g7 1. 

 t Dugdale on embanking, 185. 



X Modern annotators substitute " quat," a provincial wor4 

 for " a pimple." Ed. .. ^ . _ ,^ 



