Knot

Calidris canutus, a bird which appears in English recipe books of the 17th and 18th centuries but which was already losing its position in the markets by the beginning of the 19th century and has since dropped out of sight almost entirely as a table bird. The knot is also called red sandpiper or, when in its winter plumage, ‘grey plover’. It appears on British coasts at the end of the summer and in the autumn, but has its breeding grounds in the Arctic. The same applies to a few other sandpipers, which are smaller than the knot (whose average total length is 25 cm/10").