156 PALLAS'S SAND GROUSE. 



The gamekeeper at Abbey St. Bathans informed me on 

 the I7th of June 1888 that, in the previous week, several 

 Sand Grouse were shot on Fannanside, near Godscroft, by 

 Mr. John Moffat, Bankend ; and on the 1st of July follow- 

 ing, Mr. Millican, Harelaw, near Chirnside, told me that 

 two specimens had recently been got at Whitfield, near 

 Ay ton. On the 9 th of July 1888 the gamekeeper at Quix- 

 wood killed a fine male out of a flock of nine which were 

 feeding in a field near the Eetreat newly sown with rape 

 and grass seeds. They were very wild, and rose at a dis- 

 tance of a hundred and fifty yards, but the bird which he 

 secured remained sitting on the ground until he approached 

 within thirty yards of it.^ In the same month a specimen 

 was procured from a flock of ten or twelve at Eaecleugh- 

 head by Mr. Charles Marshall, Duns.^ Flocks of Sand 

 Grouse are said to have been seen also in the parishes of 

 Hutton,^ Foulden,* Chirnside,^ Coldingham,^ Longformacus,'^ 

 Cockburnspath,^ and Abbey St. Bathans ^ in the months of 

 June and July 1888. 



This beautiful bird inhabits the sandy steppes of Asia 

 in summer, from the eastern shore of the Caspian to Lake 

 Baikal, migrating in winter to Mongolia and China.^° Its 

 food in Scotland apparently consisted chiefly of the seeds of 



1 Information from Mr. John Hogg of Quixwood, 19tli July 1888. 



" Information from Mr. Jolm Barrie, gamekeeper, Preston, 6th February 1892. 



3 4 Mr. Compton-Luudie of Spital observed a flock of twelve Sand Grouse 

 passing over Spital House from south-east to north-west, about ninety feet high in 

 the air, on the morning of tlie 9th of June 1888. Tliey uttered a cry like the words 

 " turook, turook." 



5 Dr. Stuart, Chirnside. 



6 Mr. W. Evans, in Proccedincjs of the Royal Physical Society, vol. x. p. 109. 

 Also Mr. Bertram, Heughhead, 28th July 1888. 



7 Colonel Brown of Longformacus saw a flock on a grass jiark near Longfor- 

 niacus House on the 1st of June 1888. Information given to me by him on the 

 25th of July following. 



8 J. Hardy, Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. xii. p. 188. 



9 J. Shiels, gamekeeper. Abbey St. Bathans, 13th July 1888. 

 1" Saunders, Mamml of British Birds, 1889. 



