P alias's Sand- Grouse in 1863. 203 



64. Sherringham, 1° 15' E. Four females, 26th June. Mr. 

 Stevenson, locc. citt. 



65. Morston, 58' E. A flock of nine seen, which subse- 

 quently dwindled to three, of which one was shot about 22nd 

 June. The last week in July a flock of thirty appeared in the 

 neighbourhood, but vanished next day. Mr. Stevenson, locc. citt. 



66. Mersea, 55' E. One male and two females killed, 29th 

 June (?). Dr. Bree *, ' Field,' 4th July. 



67. Dungeness, 55' E. One caught by a dog, near the 

 lighthouse, at the beginning of August. Mr. G. Jell, in litt., 

 7th October. 



68. Lydd, 52' E. One killed out of a flock of eight, 20th 

 July ; five more of them killed the following week. Mr. G. Jell, 

 in litt., 7th October. 



69. Elmley, 45' E. Four obtained out of a flock of six, of 

 which two were killed, 7th June. Mr. E. Young, ' Zoologist,' 

 p. 8721. 



70. Croxton, 42' E. A male killed about the second week in 

 July. Mr. Stevenson, locc, citt. 



71. Elveden, 41' E. A very fine male brought alive to me, 

 6th June. It was found by a stable-lad who was exercising a 

 horse in the morning. He saw it running in some long grass ; 

 and when he caught it, imagined it had been drenched by the very 

 heavy rain we had had on the preceding night, and so rendered 

 incapable of flight. There was a little blood on one of the 

 wings, which I at first attributed to a self-inflicted injury as it 

 beat itself about in the basket in which it was put; but, on in- 



* In the ' Field ' of 1st August, 1863 (p. 157), my friend Dr. Bree, writing 

 of the visitation of the Sand-Grouse, says, " Their destination was probably 

 the Sahara, or the great sandy plains which skirt the Mediterranean on the 

 south." It would be satisfactory to know by what means the birds became 

 aware of the existence of these places, because it would greatly raise one's 

 opinion of their general intelligence. He also adds that, " till last year 

 [i. e. 1862] this bird was unknown in Europe," apparently forgetting that 

 in a part of his recent work, published in that very year (B. Eur. iii. 

 pp. 230, 231 ), he had mentioned the four best-known cases of its occurrence 

 in Europe in 1859, which have been recorded in this Journal. 



p2 



