PALLAS' S SAND GROUSE. 499 



book of Yorkshire Vertebrata," p. 61), that at least eighty 

 birds had been seen, and twenty-four procured. Since the 

 publication of the " Handbook," however, four other examples 

 of the 1863 visitation have been discovered : one by Mr. P. 

 Loten of Easington, who remembers having it to preserve, 

 but cannot give any further particulars ; and three specimens 

 in the York Blue Coat Boys' School (J. Backhouse, Nat. 

 1886, p. 308), two of which were obtained at Stockton-on-the- 

 Forest, and one near Keighley, thus bringing the number of 

 Yorkshire examples, taken in 1863, up to twenty-eight. 



Since that date there is no evidence of any other occurrence 

 of the species in this county until 1876, in which year several 

 parties were noted on the Continent, and, at the latter end of 

 August, I saw three on the sands near the Teesmouth. They 

 were very wild, not permitting an approach nearer than a 

 hundred yards, at which distance I distinctly identified them 

 through a telescope. A shooter in the locality informed 

 me he had followed the same three birds for a whole day, 

 but in vain. 



Exactly a quarter of a century after the first great incursion 

 of Sand Grouse, i.e., in May 1888, there occurred another, 

 but on a much more extensive scale, assuming the proportions 

 of an " irruption," which excited the greatest interest in 

 ornithological circles. The arrival of the vanguard of this 

 great host appears to have taken place simultaneously on the 

 whole length of the Yorkshire seaboard, though, so far as I 

 can ascertain, the first example was obtained in the north. 

 The earliest comers, a party of six, were noticed at the Tees- 

 mouth about the middle of May,* and these, probably, all 

 perished, as several were shortly afterwards found dead 

 on the neighbouring salt marshes ; a tail and foot of one 

 were brought to me on 12th June. On 22nd May a female 

 specimen, water-sodden, but otherwise in good condition, 

 was picked up on the sands, and about the same date another 



* I was absent from home in May, and on my return at the end 

 of the month, was informed of the advent of these birds " early in 

 May," but subsequent information fixes the date about the 15th or 

 1 6th of the month. 



