OP THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 243 



Family CHAEADEIID^. Genus Tringa. 



Subfamily ScOLOPAClNM. 



KNOT. 



TEINGA GKNJJTJJS—Lmnceics. 



Tringa canutus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 251 (1766) ; Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 185 (1852) ; 

 Dresser, B. Bur. viii. p. 77, pis. 555, 556 (1877) ; Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 4, iii. p. 413 

 (1883) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 174 (1885) ; Lilford, Col. Pig. Brit. B. pt. xii. 

 (1890) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs Non-indig. Brit. B. app. i. p. 337 (1894) ; Sharpe, 

 Handb. B. Gt. Brit. iii. p. 282 (1896) ; Seebobm, Col. Pig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 144, 

 pi. 43 (1896) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 593 (1896). 



Geographical distribution — British .- The Knot is a common winter 

 visitor to the British Islands, 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. It becomes rarer on the more rocky western coasts, but is 

 abundant on many parts of the low shores of Lancashire and Cumberland. In 

 Scotland it is much rarer on the west coast than on the east ; but is 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. No great amount of 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 Is- 

 land, lat. 80° by Sabine in 1820 ; (?) Melville Peninsula, lat. 67°, Grinnell Land, 

 lat. 82|-° and lat. 81f °, by Feilden and Hart (young in down secured) . Old World : 

 Not a single known breeding place ; although, judging from the birds' vast abun- 

 dance in Europe during winter, at least one, if not the only, grand breeding place 

 is on undiscovered land north of Franz Joseph Land and the Liakoff Islands, or 

 New Siberia, if not actually upon the latter archipelago. The Knot has been obser- 

 ved in summer on many points much further south on Continental Asia, but there 

 is not the slightest evidence forthcoming that these odd birds were breeding. It 

 has been obtained in Alaska and Greenland. It was observed in the Dwina delta, 



