Genus CALIDRIS. 



Gen. Char. Beak mediocral, rounded, rather slender, flexible, above sulcated, its tip de- 

 pressed, smooth and dilated. Nostrils linear, placed in a long groove. Feet four-toed ; 

 the toes margined and cleft; the hinder toe with its tip alone resting on the ground. 



KNOT. 



Calidris canutus, Briss. et Cuv. 

 Le Becasseau Canute. 



Although the Knot does not make the British Islands a place of permanent residence in which to incubate 

 and rear its young, yet it is abundant on its passage both during its equinoctial and polar migration. While 

 on the latter journey, it visits our island in the month of May, at which time many individuals have almost 

 entirely gained the full plumage of summer, so much so, as to lead us to suppose that they would remain on 

 our shores to breed ; a supposition which is strengthened by actual dissection ; still, however, we have no 

 undoubted facts upon which to assert that such a circumstance has occurred. Leaving our shores after a 

 short sojourn, they pass northwards to their arctic breeding-places : this duty accomplished, they commence 

 their migration southward, visiting our island again in their passage, when many remain the whole of the 

 winter, during which they live congregated in flocks on the borders of the sea, but giving the preference to 

 marshy and fenny countries in their native latitudes for the purpose of incubation. While they make this island 

 their asylum, numbers are annually taken, either in nets or by the gun, for the purposes of the table. In the 

 London markets they may be generally met with in the spring, and during the whole of the winter. 



The Knot is not only common in the arctic regions of the Old World, but is equally so in the northern 

 portions of America, extending throughout the whole of the circle ; its southern migrations seldom exceeding 

 the latitudes of the Mediterranean, 



We know of no birds in which the great difference between the stages of plumage in winter and summer 

 has led to so much confusion and the creation of so many synonyms : an examination of individuals in every 

 stage of plumage, from the greyish white of winter to the fine brownish red of summer, has clearly satisfied 

 us that they are specifically the same. Independently of the great dissimilarity of colour which the adult Knot 

 exhibits at these opposite seasons of the year, the young possess a colouring distinct from either, the ground 

 of which nearly resembles the plumage of winter, but every feather on the upper surface is edged at its tip 

 with two crescents, the outer one white and the inner one black, producing a most beautifully barred ap- 

 pearance : under surface buff colour. Concerning the nidification of the Knot we have been able to collect 

 no information whatever. 



The two sexes are alike in colouring, or, if there be any difference, the female is the finest in colour and 

 the largest in size. 



In summer, the whole of the upper surface is of a reddish brown, the top of the head and back of the 

 neck being marked with small longitudinal streaks of black, while each feather on the back and wings 

 has a central dash of the same colour branching out into irregular bars on the wings ; quill-feathers and 

 tail blackish brown ; the whole of the under surface is of a brick red ; bill green at the base, black at the 

 tip ; legs greenish olive ; irides dark brown. 



In winter the whole of the upper surface is of a fine ash grey ; the quills and tail brownish black ; the 

 breast and whole of the under surface white, flanks and sides of the chest being variegated with longitudinal 

 and arrow-shaped marks of brown. 



The Plate represents an adult bird in the summer and winter states of plumage of the natural size. 



