256 
RED-BREASTED SANDPIPER. 
them to turn and wheel without interfering with each other. At such times, 
their lower and upper parts are alternately seen, the flock exhibiting now 
a dusky appearance, and again gleaming like a meteor. 
Many of these young birds continue mottled with dull reddish orange on 
their lower parts until the winter is far advanced. The old individuals 
have their whole upper plumage of a uniform grey, and their lower parts 
white. As those of the first year have their markings at that season hand- 
somer than at any other period of their lives, I have given the figure of 
one in preference to that of an adult. 
It has been supposed by some that two different species of Knot occur in 
the United States, but I am of a different opinion. The dimensions of birds 
of this family, as well as of many others, are extremely variable ; and, on 
shooting eight or ten Knots, it would be difficult to find two of them having 
exactly the same size and proportions. If I add to this the very remarkable 
change of plumage exhibited by birds of this family before and after matu- 
rity, you will not think it strange that Wilson should have mistaken the 
young of the Knot for a separate species from the old bird in its spring 
dress. Indeed, I am obliged to tell you that I have been much puzzled, 
when, on picking up several of these birds from the same flock, I have 
found some having longer and thicker bills than others, with as strange a 
difference in the size of their eyes. These differences I have endeavoured 
to represent in my plate. 
My friend John Bachman states, that this species is quite abundant in 
South Carolina, in its autumn and spring migrations, but that he has never 
seen it there in full plumage. In that country it is called the “ May-bird,” 
which, however, is a name also given to the Rice-bird. Along the coasts 
of our Middle District, it is usually known by the name of “ Grey-back.” 
Ash-coloured Sandpiper, Tringa cinerea, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. vii. p. 36. Winter. 
Red-breasted Sandpiper, Tringa rvfa , Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. vii. p. 57. Summer. 
Tringa islandica, Bonap. Syn., p. 350. 
Tringa cinerea, Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 387. 
Knot or Ash-coloured Sandpiper, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 125. 
Knot or Ash-coloured Sandpiper, Tringa wAmdica, Aud.Orn. Biog.,vol. iv. p. 130. 
Male, 10i, 21. 
In autumn and spring ranges along the coast from Texas to Labrador. 
Breeds in the Fur Countries, to a very high latitude. Common. 
Adult Male in summer. 
Bill rather longer than the head, slender, straight, compressed, tapering, 
with the tip a little enlarged and blunt. Upper mandible with the dorsal 
line straight, and slightly decimate, the ridge narrow and flattened until 
