182 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
was in immature dress and probably the entire flock was composed of non- 
breeding birds. Another specimen of the Knot was found in the Kent 
Scientific Museum (No. 20215), said to have been collected by Thomas 
Harmer, but without other data. We have two well mounted specimens 
in the Agricultural College Museum, taken by Albert Hirzel, at Forestville, 
Sanilac county, June 20, 1903; Norman A. Wood saw two and secured 
one on Charity Island, Saginaw Bay, September 1, 1910, and A. G. Ruthven 
took three at Oak Point, south shore of Saginaw Bay, August 20-21, 1908 
(Rep. Mich. Geol. and Biol. Surv., Pub. 4, Biol. Ser. 2, 1910, p. 280). 
The Knot is mentioned in Steere’s list of 1880, and also in Stockwell’s 
list (Forest and Stream, VII, 22, 361). It is omitted from the lists of 
Sager, Cabot, Miles, Hughes, Trombley, and Boies. E. W. Nelson states 
that it formerly occurred in migration along the shore of Lake Michigan 
in northeastern Illinois (Bull. Nutt. Club, II, 1877, p. 68). In Wisconsin 
it is said to have been a common migrant thirty years ago, in May and June, 
and more sparingly in autumn; of late years decidedly rare at any season 
(Birds of Wisconsin, 1903, p. 45). It has been taken also occasionally in 
Ontario and Ohio, but is never common. 
In habits it is a typical sandpiper, preferring the sandy beach to all other 
localities, though it often visits the salt marsh, and the shores of ponds 
and creeks at a little distance inland. It is always a sociable species and 
formerly was invariably seen in flocks, sometimes of large size. These 
flew with great rapidity, usually following the outline of the beach only 
a few yards from shore and often directly over the breakers. In feeding 
the Knot runs swiftly along the beach, following the receding waves to pick 
up the minute animals left stranded, and avoiding the returning waves 
with great agility and skill. 
It nests in the far north—within the Arctic Circle. Only a single egg 
is known, and that was taken near Ft. Conger, in latitude 81° 44’ north, 
by Lieut. A. W. Greely. It is light pea-green, closely spotted with brown 
in small specks about the size of a pin head (Auk, II, 1885, 313). 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Wing more than six inches long; bill rather longer than head. Adultin summer: Light 
gray above, more or less mottled with blackish and tinged with rusty; rump and upper 
tail-coverts white, with numerous narrow blackish bars; under parts uniform light reddish 
or cinnamon, palest on the belly; flanks and under tail-coverts often barred or streaked 
with gray; a whitish stripe over the eye, often tinged with cinnamon. Adult in winter: 
Similar, but upper parts plain gray, with few darker markings, except the rump and upper 
tail-coverts, which are as in summer; under parts white or grayish white, the neck, breast 
and sides barred or streaked with dusky, and with little or no trace of the cinnamon. 
Young similar to winter adult, but scapulars and back feathers edged with pure white, 
with a sub-edging of black; the top of head and back of neck narrowly striped with dusky. 
Length 10 to 11 inches; wing 6.50; culmen 1.30 to 1.40; tarsus about 1 25. 
96. Grass Snipe. Pisobia maculata (Vieill.). (239) 
Synonyms: Pectoral Sandpiper, Jack Snipe, Grass-bird, Meadow-snipe—Tringa 
maculata, Vieill , 1819, Cass., Baird., A. O. U. Check-list, 1895.—Actodromas maculata, 
Coues, 1861, Ridgw., 1881.—Tringa pectoralis, Say, Nutt., Aud. 
Figure 53. 
Known by its moderate size, gray-brown back, black rump and upper 
tail-coverts, thickly streaked chest and throat, white chin and belly, and 
bill not over 1} inches. 
