. British birds with their nests and eggs . n already mentioned, essen-tially frequenters of rock^ coasts with us, and very rarely seen inland. Family—S COL OPA CID^. Knot. Tringa canutus, LiXN. TRADITION derives the name of this bird from one of our early kings—whois popularly supposed to have had a penchant for it as a table-bird, as wellas for the edge of the sea—the Latin form from his, Canutus, the vernacular fromthe Scandinavian form Knot, or Knud. Like the Purple Sandpiper, it is chieflya bird of the Atlantic shores. Its breeding quarters were long a mystery, andeven now its eggs are al
. British birds with their nests and eggs . n already mentioned, essen-tially frequenters of rock^ coasts with us, and very rarely seen inland. Family—S COL OPA CID^. Knot. Tringa canutus, LiXN. TRADITION derives the name of this bird from one of our early kings—whois popularly supposed to have had a penchant for it as a table-bird, as wellas for the edge of the sea—the Latin form from his, Canutus, the vernacular fromthe Scandinavian form Knot, or Knud. Like the Purple Sandpiper, it is chieflya bird of the Atlantic shores. Its breeding quarters were long a mystery, andeven now its eggs are all but unknown, but it has been ascertained to nest inthe extreme north, in Greenland, Grinnell Land, Melville Island, and the MelvillePeninsula; it very possibly breeds also on the Liakhov, or New SiberianIslands. It has been reported to breed in Iceland, but this is unsupported byproof, though the Knot visits Iceland on migration: supposing the bulk of thevast numbers of Knots which frequent Western Europe to breed in the neighbour-. UJ D HO 2 DHD< q: D u Z The Knot. ^39 hood above mentioned, they would naturally pass very near Iceland en route, as Ibelieve that they, and a great number of other birds, do. The Knot winters inAfrica, India and Ceylon, Australasia and South America, down to Brazil, butnot on the west coast. It passes along our coasts in spring and atitumn, someremaining all the winter, if the weather be open. Adult birds are first to returnin autumn, as is usual amongst the Limicolse, and I have two shot in July; butat the end of the first week in August, young birds begin to appear, mingledwith adults in faded summer dress, soon forming flocks from one hundred topossibly five thousand strong. It passes down the China coasts on migration insmaller numbers than with us. Description of adult in summer: bill black; iris umber; crown, shoulders,back, scapulars, and tertiaries, black, with chestnut margins, which on the tertiariesform pairs of spots; eyebrow
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1896
