Pallas's Sand-Grouse in 1863. 215 



served in this island at one place, namely Oswestry (No. 129). 

 The bulk of the invaders seem to have been checked in their 

 onward course by the North Sea, and to have passed the summer 

 on the flat and sandy coast extending from Holland to Jutland, 

 both of which countries witnessed, as I have related, attempts 

 on the part of the colonizers to increase and multiply. In 

 Holland we have flocks of a couple of hundred spoken of as fre- 

 quenting the sand-hills in June (J. f. 0. 1864, p. 69). At the 

 beginning of July, Professor Reinhardt informs me there were 

 large flocks in Jutland and Slesvig (No. 29). About the middle 

 of August, Dr. Altum tells us that bands of from ninety to one 

 hundred were still seen on the Frisian island of Borkum (No. 38). 

 A month later, in September, a great flock was observed at 

 Pinneberg in Holstein (No. 27), and some time in autumn a 

 large flight on Norderney (No. 37) ; while the latest notice I 

 can find of a numerous company being seen together is on the 

 3rd of October, when a flock of from one hundred and fifty to 

 two hundred were seen at Wittow in Riigen (No. 16), flying 

 high in air from north-west to south-east, and making pro- 

 bably for the land of their birth. 



With regard to the actual numbers of the invading host, it is 

 not very easy to come to any definite conclusion. I compute 

 those which we know to have been obtained during the past 

 twelve months at not far from 345, of which 35 may have 

 been killed since the beginning of last October. I think we 

 may also safely allow another 155 for birds which, falling 

 into the hands of ignorant persons, have been altogether lost 

 sight of*. We have thus about 465 to add to the 150 or 



* This, of course, is only guess-work ; but I believe it is an almost re- 

 ceived opinion among British naturalists that for each foreign bird killed 

 in England, and coming to the knowledge of ornithologists, at least another 

 escapes their notice altogether. Not to overstate my case here, I have 

 assumed that we become acquainted with two instances only out of every 

 three. In Scotland, Ireland, and most parts of the Continent, the propor- 

 tion of recorded to unrecorded occurrences must be still less. The fate of 

 most of the examples of Syrrhaptes obtained in France, Germany, and 

 England is rather curiously significant. In the first-named country the 

 majority are stated to have been eaten (R.^Z. p. 391 ) ; in the second they 

 were preserved as specimens and deposited in public museums ; while here 

 they were also preserved, but generally retained in private hands. 



