Letters, Extracts, Notices, S)C. 473 



I drove over on two occasions and examined the field ; bnt 

 was not fortunate in seeing the Sand -Grouse, although 

 I found indications of their recent presence, and some 

 feathers, which I sent to Professor Newton for confirmation. 



On asking the shepherd on the next farm whether he had 

 seen any strange birds about, he at once replied, " Do you 

 mean the Sand-Grouse, sir ? " ; and on ray replying " Yes," 

 said he had done so several times, and recognized them as the 

 same birds, one of which he had got, seen in 1888. He further 

 said they were much tamer during the arctic weather (snow 

 and frost) in March, and used to come to some wheat- 

 stacks placed in a row on the wold-side, and once he saw 

 them in the paddock near his cottage. He had got so near 

 as to see their " little woolly feet," and once watched them 

 following in file, like Partridges, down a furrow ; but they 

 " wobbled about " a good deal and did not walk steady. He 

 thought they left the farm with the break-up of the storm 

 later in March. They had a curious cry. 



During their stay on the wold they used almost daily to 

 take a flight of about a mile to two fields sown with wheat. 

 Here they were repeatedly flushed by competent observers, 

 all of whom remarked on their peculiar pointed wings and 

 very rapid flight. 



The district is so extensive, lonely, and thinly populated 

 that, now the corn is sown, they might remain for months 

 ■without again coming under observation. 



When I was at Flaraborough Head in April, Mr. Matthew 

 Bailey, of that place, said a man (Mainprice) had observed 

 a flock of what he at first thought were Golden Plover, in 

 March ; but on walking towards them he saw he was 

 mistaken, and, when they rose, that they were Sand-Grouse, 

 the same as those which he had shot in 1888. 



P.S. — Subsequently to writing this letter I have been told 

 of a single Sand-Grouse seen on May 19th, on the adjoining 

 farm to that on which they first appeared in February this 

 year ; also of a small flight seen in the Spurn district on 

 the evening of May 13th. 



Dr. Ritter von Tschusi zu Schmidhofen [Ornithol. Jahrb. 



