BIRDS OF NEW ZEALAND NOT FIGURED BY BULLER. 
apical edges coloured to a deep ochraceous tint, while these edges of the autumnal 
immature birds are faded to an almost white colour and often worn. 
The coloration of the feet is bluish-grey, lighter and of a yellowish tint on the 
back of the tarsus and on the under-surface of the toes. The basal half of the bill 
is of the same coloration, the tip being blackish-pink. The denuded part of 
the tibia is covered with dark spots. The maturer young show a yellowish tint 
mixed with their blue coloration. 
It is a noticeable fact that with both broods there was only one parent 
bird to each brood, and that the male. We know quite a number of Shore birds 
where but one of the parents takes care of their offspring. We are also aware 
that the male takes better care of them than the female. 
Another, and perhaps the most interesting, peculiarity of the Knot is the fact 
that in the breeding-season it inhabits the Alpine zone. From the observations 
of Miss Tiulina on Mount Terpuklioy and Portenko’s on Gorelovy, we know that 
this Knot breeds where the Alpine zone is clearly defined, viz. on the clumps 
of lichen and meadow-tundra amidst the vast area of rocky debris on the 
mountain summits. This circumstance, together with the difficulty of access 
of the Alpine zone in north-east Siberia, was the cause of the breeding grounds 
of the Great Knot remaining for so long u nkn own. 
Portenko further considers : (1) The Great Knot represents a pronounced 
case of endemism in the fauna of the North-east of the Palaearctic. (2) It is 
undoubtedly an element of the Alpine fauna of this land. 
On migration, apart from the above-named Alaska, Anadyr Land and Yakat 
Land, the Knot has been met with on the Commander Islands, Kamchatka 
(Tigil River), on the southern shores of the Okhotsk sea, on Sakhalin and on the 
lowei Amour, in Ussuri Land, in Japan, on the coasts of China, and on most of 
the islands of the Malay Archipelago. It winters on the islands of the Malay 
Archipelago, the Moluccas and on the coast of Australia. It has occurred 
on the Andaman and Laccadive Islands, reaching Scincle (Kurrach.ee Harbour). 
Consequently, on migration, and when wintering, the Great Knot keeps to the sea 
coast and the island of the western part of the Pacific Ocean and part of the 
Indian Ocean, and becomes then a typical shore-bird. 
Ihe pronounced maritime character of the migration route does not har¬ 
monize with the fact of its breeding in the Alpine zone. We have, in fact, almost 
no instances of the Alpine birds migration as far, and for so long a period and so 
trenchantly changing their ecological environment. At the same time we do 
not in the least doubt that the Great Knot is eminently a bird of the Alpine 
zone, notwithstanding the comparatively low altitude above sea-level of Anaydr 
Land. Of course, areas of mountain tundra of the above-described type 
150 
