THE KNOT. 
207 
that I have almost walked into the flock, as much to my own 
surprise as to theirs, for no sign of a bird was to be seen until 
those nearest me took wing. I once winged a Curlew Sand- 
piper from a mixed flock, and, as it fell upon a small shingle 
bank surrounded by the water, about a dozen of its own species, 
separating themselves from the Dunlins, alighted upon the 
shingle and began feeding; and when I threw stones over them, 
wishing to drive the wounded bird into the water, so that it 
might drift ashore, the only effect was to cause them to. crouch 
down as if a hawk were passing over, and it was not until I 
had waded within a few yards of them that they flew off' 
and rejoined their late companions. 
THE KNOT. 
Tringa canutus. 
In Thomas Edmondston’s manuscript notes to his Catalogue 
of the Birds of Shetland, he honestly confesses himself to be 
“ all at sea regarding the breeding of the Sandpipers,” therefore 
but little reliance can be placed upon his previous statement 
that this species is “resident, but not common.” Yet I have 
little doubt that it does occasionally breed in the northern dis- 
tricts, having seen and shot the birds in perfect summer plum- 
age, both at the beginning and the end of June, and having 
later in the year met with young ones so weak upon the wing 
that it seemed impossible for them to have crossed the sea ; 
indeed, they rather fluttered than flew. Eggs, too, were once 
sent to me from a spot where I had long suspected the Knot 
to breed, but of course their value was destroyed by the lack of 
information regarding them. They resembled the eggs of the 
Eeeve in colour and size, but were not so sharply pointed. There 
can be little question that they belonged to this species, but I 
had at hand neither specimens, figures, nor even good descrip- 
tions with which to compare them. 
Knots usually arrive in September, those very few which are 
occasionally seen in July and early in August having probably 
