. A history of British birds . nearly white, spotted withgrey; vent, and under tail-coverts white, with an occasionalstreak of grey; legs and toes ochreous-yellow, the hind toedirected inwards ; the claws black. The whole length is eight inches and a half. From thecarpal joint of the wing to the end of the first quill-feather,which is the longest, five inches. The females are ratherlarger than the males. A bird killed in November has the head, neck, back,and upper tail-coverts, uniform lead-grey; the wing-covertsand tertials only with greyish-white edges ; the under surfacechanging from bluish
. A history of British birds . nearly white, spotted withgrey; vent, and under tail-coverts white, with an occasionalstreak of grey; legs and toes ochreous-yellow, the hind toedirected inwards ; the claws black. The whole length is eight inches and a half. From thecarpal joint of the wing to the end of the first quill-feather,which is the longest, five inches. The females are ratherlarger than the males. A bird killed in November has the head, neck, back,and upper tail-coverts, uniform lead-grey; the wing-covertsand tertials only with greyish-white edges ; the under surfacechanging from bluish-grey to white. In another specimenkilled later in the year, the breast and all the under partsare nearly white, with a few spots of grey. In the downy nestling the upper parts are of a warm rufous-brown, with darker streaks and waved lines of grey on thecrown, nape, and cheeks; a well-defined black V has itsapex at the base of the bill on each side ; under parts dullwhite tinned with buff. 1 KNOT. LIMICOLJi. 413 Teinga canutus, Linnffius. THE KNOT. T ring a canutus. The Knot is by no means an uncommon bird in theBritish Islands from autumn through the winter to thespring. In the LEstrange and Northumberland HouseholdBooks so frequently quoted Knotts or Knottes arementioned on several occasions, and as an article of dietthe bird was evidently appreciated in the early part ofthe sixteenth century. Camden, in the edition of his* Britannia bearing date 1607, but not in previous ones,gives it as his opinion that the name was connected with * Tringa Canutus Linna?iis, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, p. 251 (1766). 414 SCOLOPACID^. King Canute, and this derivation, which after all is thebest which has yet been suggested, appears to have beengenerally accepted at and subsequently to that period. ThusDrayton in his Polyolbion (1622), 25th song :— The Knot, that called was Canutus Bird of old. Of that great King of Danes, his name that still doth hold, His apetite to please, that fa
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