Arthur T. Wayne (1910) says:
On May 18, 1895, I saw, on Long Island beach, a flock of these birds which I estimated to contain fully fifteen hundred individuals, while on May 21 of the same year, I observed a flock that had alighted on the beach, and that comprised without a doubt more than 3,000 birds.
Excessive shooting, both in spring and fall, reduced this species to a pitiful remnant of its former numbers; but spring shooting was stopped before it was too late and afterwards this bird was wisely taken off the list of game birds; it has increased slowly since then, but it is far from abundant now and makes only a short stay on Cape Cod.
Spring.—The main migration route of the knot in spring is northward along the Atlantic coast. The first birds usually reach the United States from South America early in April. On the west coast of Florida, in 1925, I took my first birds on April 2, and they were commonest about the middle of April. I have found them very common on the coast of South Carolina as late as May 23. Mr. Mackay (1893) writes:
They are still found in greater or less numbers along the Atlantic coast south of Chesapeake Bay. Near Charleston, S. C., Mr. William Brewster noted about 150 knots on May 6 and 8, 1885, and saw a number of flocks on May 13. They were flying by, or were alighted, on Sullivan Island beach. On May 17, 1883, he noted about 100 of these birds in the same locality. In the spring they pass Charlotte Harbor, Florida, so I am informed, in large numbers, coming up the coast from the south (a flight on May 26, 1890), at which time they are very tame. They are also more or less numerous near Morehead City, North Carolina (where they are known as "beach robins"), from May 15 to 30, their flight being along the beach, just over the surf, at early morning, coming from the east in the neighborhood of Point Lookout, 10 or 12 miles away, where they probably resorted to roost. This indicates that these birds were living in that locality.
On the Massachusetts coast the spring flight comes in May. Mr. Mackay (1893) says:
The most favorable time to expect them at this season is during fine, soft, south to southwest weather, and formerly they could be expected to pass in numbers between May 20 and June 5. In former times, when such conditions prevailed, thousands collected on Cape Cod, when they would remain for a few days to a week before resuming migration.
The knot is less common in the interior, but Prof. William Rowan evidently regards it as a regular migrant in Alberta during the latter part of May; his notes record a flock of about 200 on May 21 and one of over 150 on May 23.