EASTERN KNOT. 
Adult female, in summer-plumage. Very similar to the adult male. 
Adult male, in winter-plumage. Ash-grey above, with narrow dark shaft-lines to the 
feathers ; wings much the same as that of the summer-plumage ; upper tail-coverts 
also similar but not so strongly pronounced ; sides of face, throat, and entire under- 
surface white, with minute pale brown shaft-streaks on the sides of the face and 
freckhngs of the same colour on the breast and sides of the body and, more sparsely, 
on the abdomen and under tail-coverts ; axillaries longitu^nally marked with 
brown and white. 
Adult female, in winter-plumage. Similar to the adult male. 
The immature bird differs from the winter-plumage only in having black sub- 
marginal lines fringed with white to the feathers of the back and wings. 
Nest and eggs. Undescribed. 
Gould first added this bird to the Australian List in his Handhoolc of 1865, 
from birds sent to him by Strange, who had collected them at Moreton Bay, 
Queensland, on September 2nd, 1861. Since then it has been found in every 
State in the Commonwealth, except Tasmania. 
Seebohm* says the first bird “ was seen on the 6th of July, and on 
the 11th a small flock appeared [on Great Liakofi Island]. On the 14th 
several examples were shot, and on the 18th more ; but on the 20th this 
species became rarer, and is not recorded after the 31st.” 
Middendorff only noted it on the Taimyr River by picking up a dead 
one on August 30th. On the Boganida two examples were shot on May 27th, 
and no more seen. 
A fiock was seen on July 7th on the sea-shore, close to the mouth 
of the Uda. 
Schrenck shot a pair of young birds on the 17/29 August, on the low 
pebbly shore of the Amur River in the vicinity of Nikola] evschen posten. 
The bird figured and described in winter-plumage was collected at 
Botany Bay, New South Wales, in December, 1893, and the one in full 
breeding- plumage is the type of rogersi from Shanghai, collected in April. 
It seems strange that comparisons have not recently been made with the 
object of indicating subspecies of this bird, for upon separating the British 
Museum collection into localities, it was at once obvious that such were easily 
recognisable. When long series are available from its breeding-grounds, 
wonder will be expressed at the differences of the forms. In this case, though 
such have not yet been collected, many specimens in full plumage have been 
examined, with the result that the American Knot is noticeably paler, both 
above and below, than the European Knot, while the eastern Asiatic form 
is intermediate. The difference in coloration between the European and 
American forms is very marked, and the fact of its previous non-recognition 
* Ihis 1888, p. .346. 
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