BIRDS OF THE SHORES AND RIVER MARGINS 
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PLATE XXXIV 
BIRDS OF THE SHORES AND RIVER MARGINS 
1. Knot Calidris canutus Linne 
Cal-id'-ris — Gk, calidris (or scalidris) , kind of bird: canutus — King 
Canute. 
Distribution. — Siberia, migrating southwards to Africa, India, and 
Ceylon, Australasia, and South America down the east coast to Brazil. 
Notes. — Usually in flocks, visiting mainly the eastern and southern 
coasts, where it frequents sand-flats or the muddy shores of inlets and 
rivers. It arrives from the north during spring, and departs at the 
beginning of autumn. Generally it is seen in small parties, and occasion- 
ally in midsummer in very large flocks. It is usually very shy and wary, 
and when flushed, instead of flying to another feeding-ground, it rises to 
a great height and circles around. 
Nest. — Merely a small hollow, apparently rudely shaped by the 
nesting bird; placed in shallow depressions among the brown clumps of 
Dryas integrifolia and Elyana bellardi which grow among the rubbles and 
gravel of the high ridges (Calidris canutus rufus Wilson) ; north-western 
Greenland (Crockerland Arctic Expedition). 
Eggs. — Four, greenish-grey, covered with close, oblique spots of dark 
reddish-brown, intermingled with underlying markings of greyish-violet 
and greyish-blue, forming a zone at the larger end where there are a few 
surface spots and streaks of dark blackish-brown (Calidris canutus). 
Breeding-season: December (Otto Ottosson, M.D., Lenhofda, Sweden). 
2. Great Knot Calidris tenuirostris Horsfield 
ten-u-i-ros’-tris — L., tenuis , slender ; L., rostrum, bill. 
Distribution. — Eastern Siberia, migrating southwards to Australia. 
Notes . — Usually in flocks, frequenting the shores and river margins 
of the coastal areas of Western Australia, northern Australia, and Queens- 
land. It is a spring and summer visitor to our shores, and little has been 
recorded of its habits. 
Nest. — A slight depression in short reindeer moss. Breeding-area 
located at about 1500 feet elevation on a barren mountain ridge near the 
mouth of the River Kolyma in north-eastern Siberia. 
Eggs. — Four, greyish-yellow, uniformly and closely speckled with 
reddish-brown markings, between which are underlying spots of lilac. 
At the broad end of the egg the reddish-brown forms a distinct cap or zone 
with a few twisted lines of a brown colour. Breeding-season: June. 
