KNOT. 137 



■"I have it directly from an excellent authority, that he has seen, in 

 the spring, six barrels of these birds (all of which had been taken in 

 this manner) at one time on the deck of the Cape Cod packet for 

 Boston. He had also seen barrels of them, which had spoiled during 

 the voyage, thrown overboard in Boston Harbor on the arrival of 

 the packet. The price of these birds at that time was ten cents 

 per dozen; mixed with them would be Turnstones and Black-bellied 

 Plover. Not one of these birds had been shot, all had been taken 

 with the aid of a 'firelight.' 



" Besides those destroyed on Cape Cod in this way, I have reasons 

 for believing that they have been shot also in large numbers on the 

 coast of Virginia in the spring, on their way north to their breeding 

 grounds; one such place shipping to New York city in a single 

 spring, from April 1st to June 3rd, upwards of 6,000 Plover, a large 

 share of which were Knots. 



" It is not my intention to convey the impression that the Knots 

 are nearly exterminated, but they are much reduced in numbers, and 

 are in great danger of extinction, and comparatively few can now be 

 seen in Massachusetts, where formerly there were twenty to twenty- 

 five thousand a year, which I consider a reasonable estimate of its 

 former abundance." 



For many years the great desiderata among oologists were the eggs 

 of the Knot. Even now there are very few in existence, and it is 

 only a few years since the first authenticated specimen was procured. 

 The members of every expedition which visited the lands where the 

 Knot was known to breed had instructions to search for these eggs, 

 but one after another returned without success. Major N. W. 

 Fielding, naturalist to the Nares' Arctic Expedition of 1875-76, says: 

 "I was not so fortunate as to obtain the eggs of the Knot during our 

 stay in the polar regions, though it breeds in some numbers along 

 the shores of Smith Sound and the north coast of Grinnell Land. 

 During the month of July my companions and I often endeavored 

 to discover the nest of this bird, but none of us were successful. 



"However, on July 30th, 1876, the day before we broke up our 

 winter-quarters, where we had been frozen in for eleven months, 

 three of our seamen, walking along the border of a small lake not far 

 from the ship, came upon an old bird accompanied by three nestlings 

 which they brought to me. These young ones I have since seen in 

 the British Museum at South Kensington, where, in company with a 

 pair of the old birds, they constitute one of the most attractive of the 

 many natural groups which adorn Mr. Sharpe's department." 



