Family CHARADRIID^. Genus Tringa. 



Subfamily Scolopacin.e. 



KNOT. 



TRINGA CANUTUS— Z///«a-//j-. 



Geographical Distribution. — British .• Common winter 

 visitor, most abundant on the low-lying coast of the eastern 

 counties of England south of the Humber, and only less so in 

 suitable districts on the south coast. Becomes rarer on the more 

 rocky western coasts, but is abundant in many parts of the low 

 shores of Lancashire and Cumberland. Much rarer in Scotland 

 on the west coast than on the east. Commonly distributed round 

 the Irish coasts during winter. Many birds only pass along the 

 British coasts bound further south in autumn, or on their way 

 north in spring, whilst in severe winters our northern coasts are 

 almost deserted. Foreign : Circumpolar region ; Ethiopian, 

 Australian, Nearctic, and Neotropical regions in winter. The 

 breeding grounds of the Knot are very restricted, and probably 

 lie north of lat. 75" in the western hemisphere, and north of 

 lat. 80° in the eastern hemisphere. Very httle land is known 

 north of these limits, and what little has been explored has failed 

 to reveal the grand summer home of the tens of thousands of 

 Knots that pour southwards from the " nightless north " in early 

 autumn. The few scattered localities where the Knot has been 

 met with breeding, almost invariably in small numbers, are as 

 follows : — New World : Melville Island, lat 80°, by Sabine in 

 1820 ; (?) Melville peninsula, lat. 67" ; Grinnell Land, lat. 82^°, 

 and lat. 8i^°, by Feilden and Hart (young in down secured). 

 Old World : Not a single known breeding place ; although, 

 judging from the birds' vast abundance in Europe during winter, 

 at least one, if not the only, grand breeding place is on undis- 



