56 
in the neighbourhood about the same time, but was not procured. 
On the 9th of the same month a second was killed at Tremadoc, in 
North Wales, which may possibly have been the second bird seen 
at King’s Lynn, and in November of the same year a third was 
killed at New Romney, in Kent. These three birds are the first 
which are recorded as having been seen in any part of the British 
Islands. In the same year, five more specimens are recorded 
to have been killed at various places on the Continent, so that 
altogether nine birds (or possibly only eight) are recorded as 
having occurred in Europe in 1859, and of these three, as we have 
have seen, were killed in England and Wales. No further specimens 
of this bird were observed in Kingland, or, so far as is known, in Europe, 
until 1863. Jn thatyeara most extraordinary irraption of the species 
took place, an irruption which is entirely without a parallel in orni- 
thology. An enormous-number of these birds, probably in one flock, 
seem to have left their proper home in Central Asia, and to have swept 
uninterruptedly onward, in a north-westerly direction, ata tolerably 
uniform rate of progress. Small bands seem to have detached 
themselves from the main body, at intervals, as they passed along, 
and these again separated themselves into pairs in the districts 
where they stopped. ‘he remains of this great host crossed over 
into England. As some were killed as far west as the coast of 
Donegal, in Ireland, and the island of Benbecula, in the Outer 
Hebrides, there can be no reasonable doubt that they would have goue 
still further west if they had not been stopped by the Atlantic. They 
might certainly have gone on to St. Kilda, which is fifty miles 
farther west, but, after that, there would be no land between them 
and America. Nortoward, some members of the flock reached as far 
up as the Foeroes, and southward as far down as Biscarolle, in 
Gascony. ‘The flight of this strange host has been very carefully 
investigated and worked out by Professor Newton, and he has 
traced the progress of the flock through more than 33 degrees of 
longitude—from Brody, in Galicia, to Naran, on the north-west 
coast of Ireland. The earliest date given with precision seems to 
be May 6th, on which day they were observed at Sokolnitz, in 
Moravia, in longitude 16 degrees 40 seconds KE. ‘There seems to 
be some slight doubt as to the exact date on which the flock reached 
England. Professor Newton considers May 21 to be the date, on 
which day three were killed, out of a flock of 14, at Thrapton, in 
Northumberland; but it seems probable that some few, at all 
events, of these birds crossed into England a few days before May 
21st. It is worth while pausing for a moment to consider the 
distance which these birds must have come. If they started from the 
country lying immediately to the eust of the Caspian Sea, which is 
the nearest point they could have come from, and they may quite 
well have come from still further eastward, then, starting from 
about longitude 55 degrees E., those which reached the west coats 
ee 
