Trachea 5 1/2 inches long; its rings 110, extremely thin and feeble; its diameter at the top 4 1/2 twelfths, at the lower part 2 1/2 twelfths. The lateral muscles are scarcely perceptible, the sterno-tracheal very slender; the inferior larynx small; the bronchi of moderate length and width, with 25 half-rings.
KNOT OR ASH-COLOURED SANDPIPER.
Tringa islandica, Linn.
PLATE CCCXV. Adult in Summer and Winter.
The Knot, good Reader, is a handsome and interesting species, whether in its spring or in its winter plumage, and, provided it be young and fat, is always welcome to the palate of the connoisseur in dainties. As to its habits, however, during the breeding season, I am sorry to inform you that I know nothing at all, for in Labrador, whither I went to examine them, I did not find a single individual. I have been informed that several students of nature have visited its breeding places; but why they have given us no information on the subject, seeing that not only you and I, but many persons besides, would be glad to hear about it, is what we cannot account for.
I do not wish you to infer from these remarks, that the persons alluded to are the only ones who have neglected to note down on the spot observations which might be interesting and useful. I myself am very conscious of my own remissness in this respect, and deeply regret the many opportunities of studying nature which have been in a manner lost to me, on account of a temporary supineness which has seized upon me, at the very moment when the objects of my pursuit were placed within my reach by that bountiful Being to whom we owe all our earthly enjoyments, and all our hopes of that future happiness which we strive to merit.
I have traced the Knot along the shores of our Atlantic states, from Texas to the entrance of the Bay of Fundy, in the months of April and May, and again in the autumnal months. I have also found it in winter in East Florida, and therefore feel confident that some of the species do not proceed beyond our southern limits at that season. Whilst on the Bay of Galveston, in Texas, in April 1837, I daily observed groups of Knots arriving there, and proceeding eastward, meandering along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. In the interior of the United States I never observed one, and for this reason I am inclined to think that the species moves northward along the coast. But as I did not find any in Nova Scotia, Labrador, or Newfoundland, I consider it probable that those which betake themselves to the fur countries, turn off from our Atlantic shores when they have reached the entrance of the Bay of Fundy. However this may be, it is certain that they reach a very high latitude, and that some stop to breed about Hudson’s Bay, where Dr Richardson found them in summer.
On some few occasions I have observed the Knot associating with the Tell-tale Godwit and Semi-palmated Snipe, about a mile from the sea, along the margins of ponds of brackish-water; but such localities seemed in a manner unnatural to them, and it was seldom that more than two or three were seen there. Along the shores, in spring, I have not unfrequently thought that they seemed dull, as if they had lost themselves, for they would allow a person to go very near, and seldom took to wing unless induced to do so by companions of other species, who were better aware of their situation. In autumn, when they at times collect into very large flocks, I have often followed them until I obtained as many as I wished. Wilson has so beautifully described their movements at such times, that, although I have often witnessed them myself, I prefer giving his own words.
“In activity it is superior to the Turnstone; and traces the flowing and recession of the waves along the sandy beach with great nimbleness, wading and searching among the loosened particles for its favourite food, which is a small thin oval bivalve shell-fish, of a white or pearl-colour, and not larger than the seed of an apple. These usually lie at a short distance below the surface; but in some places are seen at low water in heaps, like masses of wet grain, in quantities of more than a bushel together. During the latter part of summer and autumn, these minute shell-fish constitute the food of almost all those busy flocks that run with such activity along the sands, among the flowing and retreating waves. They are universally swallowed whole; but the action of the bird’s stomach, assisted by the shells themselves, soon reduces them to a pulp. Digging for these in the hard sand would be a work of considerable labour, whereas, when the particles are loosened by the flowing of the sea, the birds collect them with great ease and dexterity. It is amusing to observe with what adroitness they follow and elude the tumbling surf, while at the same time they seem wholly intent on collecting their food.”
I have however seen the Knot probe the wet sands, on the borders of oozy salt marshes, thrusting in its bill to the feathers on the forehead, and this with the same dexterity as several other species. Its flight is swift, at times rather elevated, and well sustained. At their first arrival in autumn, when they are occasionally seen in great numbers in the same flock, their aërial evolutions are very beautiful, for, like our Parrakeet, Passenger Pigeon, Rice-bird, Red-winged Starling, and other birds, they follow each other in their course, with a celerity that seems almost incomprehensible, when the individuals are so near each other that one might suppose it impossible for 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 handsomer than at any other period of their lives, I have given the figure of one in preference to that of an adult.