BIRDS 389 



March, when many arrive on passage to their breeding-grounds. 

 Knots have not often been taken in the interior of Lakeland, 

 but I have seen Knots arriving at a great height above the 

 Solway from the north-east, and these birds, which we recog- 

 nised by their twittering cry, must have crossed Northumber- 

 land. So too, on the 7th of November 1890, having spent the 

 day among the Knots at Bowness, I confess that I was inter- 

 ested to hear at 10.30 P.M. some Knots uttering their high- 

 pitched whistle, as they flighted over Carlisle, speeding on their 

 way through the dark rain-clouds towards our western estuaries. 

 In November 1887 a man named Elliot, employed as a keeper 

 on Crossfell, saw a small flock of Sandpipers crossing the fell- 

 side, and firing a shot at 70 yards, had the good luck to bring 

 down one of them — a Knot in full winter dress. That is the 

 plumage of the greater number of the Knots shot on our 

 estuaries. A few Knots sometimes linger long enough to 

 assume the red dress, as in 1891, when Mr. Nicol counted six 

 or seven ' red Knots ' in a flock of fifty birds in the middle of 

 May. They occur also in this dress in early autumn, but are 

 too wild to be often procured. Their food consists almost 

 entirely of small mollusca. Birds that have been accidentally 

 pinioned by a shot sometimes frequent our marshes for many 

 weeks, finding a plentiful supply of animal life in the creeks 

 which drain the saltings. 



RUFF. 



Machetes pugnax (L. ). 



The Ruff visits the salt marshes of the Solway Firth every 

 year, but in very small numbers, and only in the months of 

 August and September, when both sexes are exclusively repre- 

 sented (in our experience) by young birds. They often associate 

 with Peewits, and feed in company with those birds on the 

 open portions of the salt grazings, but sometimes in the creeks 

 or even on the open sand. It has been said that the Ruff is a 

 silent bird, and no doubt it is so in comparison with some other 

 Limicolje, yet its loud shrill whistle may occasionally be heard 

 at a considerable distance. Nowhere has it been met with, or 



