232 
allen’s naturalist’s library. 
culincn, which widens slightly towards the end. The Knots 
may be distinguished from the Dunlins by the shape of the tail, 
which is square, with the middle feathers not prolonged. The 
inner secondaries also are shorter, and the distance between 
their tips and the tips of the primaries is more than the length 
of the tarsus. 
I. THE KNOT. TRINGA CANUTUS. 
Tringa canutus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 251 (1766) ; Macgiil. 
Brit. B. iv. p. 185 (1852) ; Dresser, B. Eur. viii. p. 77 pis. 
SS 5 i 556 (1877) ; B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 171 {1883) ; 
Saunders, ed. Yarrell’s Brit. B. iii. p. 413 (1883); See- 
bohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 174 (1885); Saundens, Man. 
Brit. B. p. 581 (1889); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part 
xii. (1890). 
Adult Male in Winter Plumage.— General colour above ashy- 
grey, perfectly uniform except on the rump, where there are a 
few dusky bars ; upper tail-coverts white, barred across with 
black ; wing-coverts ashy like the back, except the marginal 
coverts, which are du.sky-brown, the median series also with 
dusky centres, the greater series tipped with white ; bastard- 
wing and primary-coverts black, the inner ones broadly tipped 
with white ; quills dull ashy-brown, blackish on the outer web 
and at the tip of the inner web, the shafts white, the inner pri- 
maries plainly edged with white near the base of the outer web ; 
the inner secondaries ashy brown like the back ; tail ashy-grey, 
with whitish shafts to the feathers ; crown of head ashy-grey, 
slightly mottled with dusky centres to the feathers ; lores dusky- 
grey, surmounted by a broad streak of white, continued into a 
narrow white eyebrow, slightly streaked with dusky lines ; sides 
of face white, with narrow dusky streaks, the upper margin of 
the ear-coverts ashy-grey ; under surface of body white, the chin 
unspotted, but the throat streaked, and the fore-neck and chest 
mottled, with dusky spots or bars, the sides of the neck and of 
the chest dull ashy-brown ; the flanks white, with irregular bars 
or arrow-head marks of dusky-brown \ under wing-coverts 
white, the axillaries w'ith a few dusky bars; lower primary-coverts 
and quill-lining ashy-grey. Total length, 9 inches ; culmen, 
1-3; wing, 6-1 ; tail, 2-3; tarsus, 1-2. 
