13 
AN UNRECORDED CHESHIRE SANDGROUSE 
(Syrrhaptes paradoxus, Pall.), 
By Mr. CHAS. OLDHAM. 
Mr. W. Beaumont, of Southport, has kindly allowed me to examine a 
Pallas’s Sandgrouse in his Collection, which was shot by a man named 
James Mote in 1888, on the hillside between Arnfield Clough and North 
Britain Farm, near Stalybridge. The bird is a male, having long central tail 
feathers and a narrow interrupted black gorget. It was brought in the flesh 
to Mr. Beaumont, who was then living at Hollingworth, and was set up by 
Ben Clegg, an Oldham taxidermist. I have a letter from Mote to the effect 
that he shot the Sandgrouse as it flew over him at a good speed, ‘‘ making a 
noise something like cluck, cluck, cluck.’’ The occurrence of the species in 
East Cheshire is, perhaps, worthy of record, for, so far as I know, the only 
other eee obtained in the County during the 1888 invasion, were shot 
in Wirral. 
RED-NECKED GREBE IN CHESHIRE 
(Podiceps griseigena, Bodd.), 
By Mr. CHAs. OLDHAM. 
Mr. Seth Radcliffe, an old and leading member of the Mossley Field 
Naturalists’ Society, informs me that a Red-necked Grebe, in the Society’s 
Collection, was skot on the River Tame, near the Stamford Mills, Mossley, 
by a man named Giles Andrew, in 1868 or 1869. The label recording the 
exact date, which was formerly attached to the case containing the bird, has, 
unhappily, been destroyed. . The history of the specimen seems to be quite 
satisfactory, as Mr. Radcliffe’s account of it is corroborated by other members 
of the Society whom I have seen. The Grebe is in immature plumage, the 
neck being rich red-brown in colour, and the white cheeks streaked with 
greyish-brown. Mr. F. Stubbs, of Oldham, who directed my attention to 
the bird, has made a water-colour drawing of it, in which these characters are 
clearly shown. The existence of the Mossley specimen is of some interest, as 
the only other evidence of the occurrence of this Grebe in Cheshire is the 
somewhat vague statement of Brockholes (*‘ Birds of Wirral,” p. 15) that it 
is occasionally obtained in the estuary of the Dee. Dr. Dobie has pointed 
out (“Report of the Chester Society of Natural Science, Literature, and 
Art,” 1900-1, p. 25) that a Grebe in Mr. L. Jones’ Collection, at Hilbre 
Island, is referable to P. cristatus, and not P. griseigena as erroneously 
stated in the ‘‘ Birds of Cheshire,” p. 249. 
NOTE ON SOME WHITE EGGS OF THE WATERHEN 
(Gallinula chloropus, Linn.), 
By Mr. R. NEWSTEAD. 
During the summer of 1903 two clutches of white eggs of the Waterhen 
were procured for the Society’s Museum. The first clutch, consisting of seven 
eggs, was taken on the 17th of June; and the second clutch, of five, was 
taken on the 15th of July. The eggs in both clutches are irregular in shape ; 
but more especially so are those composing the larger clutch, several of which 
are remarkably Grebe-like, both in form and colour. However this may 
be, there cannot be the slightest doubt as to the identity of the eggs, as 
the parent bird was seen and identified, by the writer, on both occasions, 
Moreover, both the nests were typical of those of the Waterhen, and were 
composed entirely of the leaves of sedges, and were deeply cup-shaped. Both 
nests were built in the same pit, among sedges, and were evidently the work 
of one pair of birds. No Grebes have been seen in the habitat from which 
the eggs were taken. 
