The Birds of Pembrokeshire. 77 
noted early in July, 1859, at Tremadoc, at the north end of 
Cardigan Bay, was observed in Pembrokeshire at each of its great 
visitations in 1863 and 1888. A female bird was shot near 
Haverfordwest, February 8th, 1864 ; and is recorded in Professor 
Newton’s excellent account of the first immigration of the species 
to this country in the volume of the Zézs for 1854, page 211. The 
Haverfordwest specimen was the last reported occurrence of this 
bird in Great Britain on its first visitation. Sir Hugh Owen has 
informed us that a Sand-Grouse was shot in Pembrokeshire, in the 
spring of 1870; this occurrence is singular, as no other Sand- 
Grouse is recorded from the British Isles in the year 1870. In 
the second, and still more numerous irruption of Pallas’s Sand- 
Grouse, in 1888, a female was shot in the parish of Ambleston, 
on 28th May in that year; and about that date, we heard from 
Mr. Mortimer Propert that some “strange birds” had been seen 
near St. David’s, that were probably a flock of Sand-Grouse. 
The home of this species is to be found on the steppes of Tartary, 
and the cause which induced it to wander so far away, and in 
such numbers, is quite unknown. 
PHEASANT, Pahasianus colchicus and torquatus.—Introduced. 
The Pheasant thrives remarkably well in Pembrokeshire, not 
only in the preserves, but in the wild unpreserved districts in 
the county, where it meets with all its requisites—water, shelter 
and food. It delights in the stiff fox-covers of from four feet to 
five feet high furze, which are so numerous, and in these, as we 
have often experienced, neither dogs nor beaters will avail to 
flush it. The birds shot in these impenetrable covers are worth 
some trouble to obtain, being fine and heavy, and of most excel- 
lent flavour. The ring-necked Pheasant (/. torqguatus) 1s NOW 
the predominant variety throughout the county. It is said to 
have been introduced by Sir John Owen, Bt., of Orielton, some 
fifty or sixty years ago, and it has extended itself even to the 
remote “mountain” districts, ‘The Rev. W. Scott, rector of 
Slebech, has told us that when he was a boy at school in Car- 
marthen, he well remembers the town crier one day being sent 
