366 GAME BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA 



is at least twice as long as the head. There are also conspicuous habit 

 differences. Knots feed in compact flocks, while Dowitchers spread 

 out when foraging, and in flight the head and bill of the Dowitcher 

 are conspicuously bent downward, while the Knot holds its head 

 and bill in line with the body as do other species of sandpipers. In 

 the fall the Knot is more difficult of recognition. Its "chunky" 

 appearance, the absence of sharply contrasted streaks on its back 

 and under surface, its short legs and bill (but slightly longer than 

 the head), and its habit of feeding in close flocks, must then be 

 depended upon. 



The call-note of the Knot is a soft wah-quoit, uttered commonly 

 when the bird is coming to decoys, and is said -to resemble the rolling 

 note of the American Golden Plover. In addition it has a soft honk 

 (Mackay, 1893, p. 27). Hoffman {in Forbush, 1912, p. 262) renders 

 the note as a soft whit-whit, like the whistle one employs in calling a 

 dog. The birds are said to decoy to such calls and to a whistle 

 resembling the call of the Black-bellied Plover (Mackay, loc. cit.). 



The Knot . . . frequents the ocean beach, the tidal flat and more rarely the salt 

 marsh. On the beach it plays back and forth, following the receding waves 

 and retreating before their advance. When the surf pounds upon the sandy 

 shore it is the Eed-breast's harvest time. Then the surge constantly washes up 

 the saaid, bringing small shell-fish to the surface of the beach, as a placer 

 miner washes out gold in his pan, and the birds, nimbly following the reces- 

 sion of the wave, rapidly pick up the exposed shells ere the return of the 

 surge. . . . "With the flow of the tide, which drives them from the flats or the 

 tide-washed beach, the Knots seek either the beach ridge, some shoal above high- 

 water mark or the salt marsh. They are prone to alight on outer half-tide 

 ledges, where they find small crustaceans and other forms of marine life among 

 the seaweed. They are so attracted to such places and to beaches where sea- 

 worms are plentiful that they will return to them again and again in the face 

 of the gunners' fire and this habit accounts in pa^t for their diminution 

 (Forbush, 1912, pp. 266-267). 



When the incoming tide drives the Knots from the flats they seek the 

 marshes, or some shoal which is sufficiently elevated to remain uncovered dur- 

 ing high water; they also frequent the crest of the beaches. Here they gen- 

 erally remain quiet until the tide has fallen sufficiently to permit them to 

 return again to the flats to feed. When on the marshes during high water they 

 occupy some of the time in feeding, showing they are by no means dependent 

 on the flats for all their food. They associate and mingle as freely with the 

 Turnstone (Arenaria interpres), Black-bellied Plover {Charadrius sguatarola), 

 and Eed-backed Sandpiper (Tringa alpina paeifica) as with their own kind. . . . 

 They also frequent the flats at night as well as in the daytime. ... On the 

 ground they are sluggish, and not given to moving about much; unless very 

 much harassed they are not nearly so vigilant as their companions, the Black- 

 bellied Plover. ... In the spring . . they sometimes frequent the upland 

 on the island in company with the Turnstone, never doing so, however, in 

 August or September. . . . Knots as a rule are not in the habit of frequenting 

 uplands, as they do the marshes. . . . They are induced ... to follow the 



