SAND-GROUSE. 35 



Hebrides,* on October 13th. In the south, before the end of 

 June, Sand-grouse had visited the flat shores of Essex, Kent, 

 and Sussex ; the sands of Slapton, in South Devon ; the 

 Land's End, and St. Agnes, Scilly Islands. At Heanton, in 

 North Devon, a survivor was obtained in December ; and at 

 Haverfordwest, . in Pembrokeshire, another, which was seen 

 in the flesh by the late Mr. Gould, was obtained 8th Feb- 

 ruary, 1864; the latest date for these islands. Eccleshall, 

 in Staffordshire ; Oswestry ; the sandy coasts of Cheshire 

 and Lancashire ; Penrith, in Cumberland, were visited ; and 

 then, after a considerable interval. Sand-grouse turned up 

 again in Renfrewshire and Stirling. Inland they occurred 

 in various localities : on the flats of Cambridgeshire, the 

 sandy heaths of Aldershot, and even so near the metropolis 

 as Barnet. In Ireland examples were killed at Ptoss ; and 

 at Drumbeg and Naran, both in co. Donegal ; the latter 

 being the most western locality on record. Judging from 

 the materials available, it would appear that a large majority 

 were obtained from May 21st onwards to the end of June, 

 by which time the awakened and widely-spread interest in 

 the new visitants, taking its usual forms of persecution and 

 extermination, had done its worst. Some may have sought 

 refuge on the continent, which they had left ; but, at all 

 events, by the middle of November they had disappeared 

 from the favoured counties of Norfolk and Sufiblk. In the 

 remote and scantily peopled districts of the wild West a 

 few individuals lingered throughout the autumn and winter ; 

 but even there, by February 1864, the last of the invaders 

 of 1863 had succumbed. 



The birds which arrived on our shores formed, however, 

 but a portion of a far larger eastern horde, the main body 

 of which, in all probability, never reached the British Islands. 

 The meagre information as to their occurrence in Russia has 

 already been given. From Galicia, on the 6th of May, the 

 Sand-grouse pressed onwards to Pesth, Vienna, and other 

 Austrian localities ; the outlying wing of the army sending 

 forth its stragglers as far south as Rimini, on the Adriatic ; 



* R. Gray, Birds of the West of Scotland, p. 239. 



