168 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Sjjecies jf Birds 



claim a local habitation and a place amongst us than the last-named 

 species; though at the present time it only occui's as an occasional 

 visitor. They used to be met with on the downs around Ebbesborne 

 and Sutton^ and also, I believe, on TefFont Common and elsewhere. 

 This is not surprising when we remember that in the adjacent 

 counties of Hants and Somerset, on either side of us, they are not 

 infrequent. I have sprung them several times in the New Forest, 

 round Rufus's stone ; and on one occasion near Verwood I noticed 

 a fine old cock bird on the bank of the railway, which in no way 

 showed any fear of the passing train, but held up his head as a bird 

 who was in no way ashamed of showing himself. On the other side 

 of us, in Somerset, they are numerous on some of the ranges of 

 hills. On the Quantocks, ranging from the district of Taunton to 

 St. Audries on the coast, they are found in considerable numbers. 

 I remember one day in the woods above Bagborough, when I was 

 anxious to obtain a good cock of my own shooting for my collection, 

 I sprung some eight or ten brace of grey hens, mostly single birds, 

 but only three cocks put in an appearance, and that at such a discreet 

 distance that I could not secure one, my only chance being at one 

 that got out of the lower branches of a thick spruce fir, and which 

 took me so by surprise that I was not quick enough for a snap shot 

 through the boughs. The old cocks get very cunning, and give 

 one the slip much in the same way as a cock Pheasant will. The 

 specimen I have was one out of eight cock birds that had congre- 

 gated together, as they will, in the early part of December. Mr, 

 Wyndham, of Dinton, has a good pair of local specimens in his 

 collection. The cock bird having been killed, to the best of his 

 belief, on December ]5th, 1820, just where the parishes of Ebbes- 

 borne and Sutton* Mandeville meet; while the grey hen was killed 

 at Langford on December 5th, 1819. Even now they are oc- 

 casionally to be met with in their old haunts, as the Rev. T. 

 Wyndham informs me that a grey hen was killed by Robert 

 Way, one of his brother^s gamekeepers, as recently as November 

 11th of last year (1880). This bird, no doubt, may have been 

 a straggler; but it is extraordinary how birds will continually 

 re-visit their old haunts, led by that unerring instinct which 



