The Knot 



"Knots have swept down the roaring coasts for centuries, but the 

 mystery was, Where do they come from? Sir So-and-so was charged to 

 bring back with him from the algid North, along with sundry information 

 about the tides, and temperatures, and short cuts to China, a set of 

 Knot's eggs; but he came back empty-handed. Grizzled sea-captains 

 said, 'Lo, here! lo, there they breed'; but the eggs were not forthcoming. 

 Finally, it was left for our own Lieutenant Greely to bring back the first 

 authentic specimen, one taken near Fort Conger, lat. 8i° 44', North, 

 together with the parent bird. Verily, if we were Knots, even baby Knots, 

 we might stand some show of reaching the North Pole" (The Birds of 

 Ohio). 



The Robin Snipes are found chiefly coastwise, and they are, or were, 

 very much more common on the Atlantic seaboard than along our shores. 

 But there is a favored spot in Alameda County, a part of the San Fran- 

 cisco Bay shore, which appears to have been a major station for these 

 birds from time immemorial. Here they have been seen by the score, 

 perhaps hundreds, during both the spring and fall migrations; whereas, 

 save for Fannin's brief comment, 1 "Abundant during migrations," our 

 records of this bird's occurrence on the Pacific Coast seem to be most 

 meager, and those concerned with chance individuals or very small com- 

 panies. There are half a dozen records for the coast of California; and 

 I have noted the bird twice at Santa Barbara: once on August 29th, 191 1, 

 two immature birds; and on May 1st, 19 13, a single individual in winter 

 (or immature) plumage. 



Knots move about, now singly, or in small flocks, and may be found 

 on the mud flats as well as on the sandy beaches. The plain dark colora- 

 tion of an adult does not attract attention at a distance, but it is often 

 associated in feeding and in flight with more brightly colored birds, 

 notably the Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) . It is, moreover, one of the 

 least suspicious of the larger Shore-birds, and decoys readily to any 

 whistle of its genus, even though the gunner be standing in plain sight. 

 The bird feeds chiefly upon aquatic insects, crustaceans, and small 

 bivalves. These it secures chiefly from the wake of the receding wave, 

 but it swims also with ease, and does not fear a little buffeting on the part 

 of the racing "hurry-back." At high tide it cheerfully retires to the 

 marshes and probes for its food in the more open places. 



The record of human dealings with this gentle, trustful Northlander 

 is an altogether sad one. According to Mr. George H. Mackey, our 

 highest authority on the species, Knots used to rise from the bay shores of 

 Massachusetts "in clouds/' Twenty-five thousand was a sober estimate 

 of the number to be seen at a given station in one season in the middle of 



1 "Catalogue of British Columbia Birds." Victoria, 1904, p. 21. 



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