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 KNOUT KNOX 31 States. The color of the summer plumage is light gray above, with black and pale reddish spots; rump and upper tail coverts white, with narrow bands and crescents of black ; below light brownish red, with under tail coverts, thighs, sides, and under wing coverts white, spotted and barred with brownish black ; quills brownish black, with white shafts ; tail brownish cinereous, each feather white-edged. In winter the upper parts are darker, with brownish black edgings ; below dull ashy white, lightest on abdomen, with numerous longitudi- nal dark brown lines and spots on the breast and neck. The knot is found throughout east- ern North America and Europe. It is a very active bird, nimbly running and wading along the edge of the waves on sandy beaches, search- ing for minute shell fish and marine worms ; the flight is swift, and large flocks perform very beautiful and rapid aerial evolutions. The flesh of the young and fat birds is con- sidered a delicacy. RJfOUT (properly KNTJT), the Russian word for whip, and the name of an instrument of punishment formerly in use in Russia. The culprit was bound to two stakes, and received on his bare back the specified number of lash- es from a whip of plaited thongs interwoven with wire ; 100 to 120 lashes were considered equivalent to a sentence of death. The whip- ping was inflicted by the hands of a convict respited from Siberia and kept in prison for that purpose. If a culprit survived this pun- ishment, he was banished for life to Siberia. In earlier times the nose was slit, the ears were cut off, and the letter V, for vor (rogue), was branded on the forehead ; but this aggra- vation was abolished by Alexander I. The nobility were legally exempt from the knout, but the privilege was not always respected. The punishment was inflicted on the worst class of criminals, but now and then also on political offenders. The knout was abolished by the emperor Nicholas, who substituted the pleti, a kind of lash. KNOWLES, James Davis, an American clergy- man, born in Providence, R. I., in July, 1798, died in Newton, Mass., May 9, 1838. His father, a respectable mechanic of Providence, apprenticed him at the age of 12 to a printer. He studied French and Latin without a teacher, and on becoming co-editor in 1819 with Prof. Goddard of the " Rhode Island American," he studied Greek, and at a later period made respectable progress in Hebrew. At the age of 22 he joined the Baptist church, and enter- ed the sophomore class of Columbian college, Washington, D. 0. He graduated in 1824, and was immediately appointed tutor, but in De- cember, 1825, was ordained pastor of a church in Boston. In 1832 he was called to the chair of pastoral duties and sacred rhetoric in the Newton theological institution. In 1836 he founded the " Christian Review," a quarterly journal of the Baptist denomination. Visiting New York in the latter part of April, 1838, to 470 VOL. x. 3 attend the anniversaries of his denomination, he took the smallpox, of which he died. His principal works are a " Memoir of Mrs. Ann H. Judson " (1827), which went through nu- merous editions, and a "Memoir of Roger Williams, Founder of Rhode Island " (1834). KNOWLES, James Sheridan, a British dra- matist, born in Cork, Ireland, in 1784, died at Torquay, England, Nov. 30, 1862. He was the son of James Knowles, a teacher of elocu- tion, and author of a " Pronouncing English Dictionary." In 1792 the family removed to London, and four years later young Knowles produced his first play, a juvenile performance in which he and a number of young amateurs took part. At the age of 22 he made his de- but as an actor in the Crow street theatre, Dublin. For about ten years he led an un- settled life, sometimes as an actor, sometimes as a teacher of elocution, and with but mod- erate success in either occupation. He wrote nothing for the stage worthy of mention till 1815, when his "Caius Gracchus" was pro- duced in Belfast with great success. His next play, " Virginius," in which Macready sustain- ed the leading part at Drury Lane, first made him generally known to the dramatic public ; and thenceforth for many years he was one of the leading playwrights in England. His "Beggar of Bethnal Green," "Hunchback," and "Wife" followed; and in the two lat- ter, which are still popular on the stage, the author appeared in leading characters. Af- ter engagements in various parts of the Uni- ted Kingdom he made a successful tour in the United States. On his return to England he produced "The Love Chase," "Woman's Wit," "The Maid of Mariendorpt," "Love," " Old Maids," " John of Procida," " The Rose of Aragon," and " The Secretary," all of which enjoyed a fair degree of success, while some are still standard acting plays. His health be- gan to fail after this, and in 1849 a pension of 200 was procured for him, it being repre- sented that the profits of his dramatic writings had never equalled this sum per annum. In 1845 he abandoned the stage, and subsequently became known as an eloquent preacher of the Baptist denomination. Two polemical works, "The Rock of Rome" and "The Idol De- molished by its own Priest," testify to the energy with which he employed his pen in this new calling. He also wrote two novels, " George Lovel " and " Henry Fortescue." A collective edition of his plays was published in 1841-'3 (3 vols., London). He published a collection of his minor writings under the title of "The Elocutionist" (19th ed., 1853). His last years were spent in total retirement on account of sickness. KNOX, the name of nine counties in the United States. I. A S. county of Maine, bor- dering on the Atlantic, bounded E. by Penob- scot bay, and intersected by the Medomac and St. George's rivers ; area, 330 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 30,823. It has a productive soil, and