TURTLE DOVE — PALLAS S SAND-GEOUSE. 125 



call the Stock Dove the ' Rockier/ it is probable that a con- 

 fusion of the two species arose. 



THE TURTLE DOVE. ' '^ 



Tiaiur communis. 



The Turtle Dove is a regular summer visitor^ breeding- 

 commonly, but not very numerously, in woods and plantations, 

 and in tall hedgerows, all over the county. Arriving about 

 the second week in May, it is rarely seen after the early part 

 of September, when they are sometimes met with by sports- 

 men in the stubbles and turnip-fields ; in 1879 two were seen, 

 and one shot, in a turnip-field at Adderbury on Michaelmas 

 day. 



For several years a pair of Turtle Doves nested in the top 

 of a large old ivy-clad weymouth pine in my brother^s garden 

 at Bodicote. 



PALLAS' S SAIfD-GROUSE. \ V Q 



SjjryJutptes jyaradoxus. 



The Sand- Grouse is a native of the Asiatic steppes, where 

 it rears two, and sometimes three, broods in the season, and 

 increases very rapidly. It is liable to sudden movements 

 in large flocks [cf. Yarrell), and has visited Europe, spreading 

 westward across the continent to the shores of Great Britain, 

 on several occasions. The first memorable invasion of England 

 by this species occurred in 1863, when a great number were 

 killed in this country, but, as far as I know, none were seen 

 in Oxfordshire in that year. In the spring of 1888, however, 

 another, and still larger, immigration took place, and Sand- 

 Grouse were observed in several parts of this covmty. 



On the 20th May, some Sand-Grouse were seen near 

 Bensington, as recorded by Mr. W. Newton, jun. [Field, 26th 

 May), who has kindly furnished me with the following 

 particulars. They first made their appearance on a piece 

 of ground drilled with swede turnips (which were not then 



