PTEROCLID ^—SAND-GROUSE, 217 



During the invasion of 1888-89, many more specimens were seen and obtained 

 than had been the case on the previous occasion, no less than about eighty 

 individual birds being either observed or taken. One of the earliest Essex 

 observations in this year was that of Mr. Edward Catchpool, of Peering Bury, 

 who observed a covey of twelve or thirteen in a field of young mangold at 

 Ardleigh, on May 30th (29. June 2). Mr. Fitch records (50. ii. 271) that nine 

 specimens were observed on Foulness Island either on May 28th or June 4th. Mr. 

 Ernest Smith, of the Limes, Southminster, saw seven on the island, on Shelford 

 Farm, on the 30th of the latter month, and some were still there as late as Sep- 

 tember 8th. On June 15th, Mr. Fitch specially visited Mersea Island in order to 

 enquire whether any had been seen there, but without result. Mr. Crouch 

 records (29. June 9) that on June 4th, 1888, a covey of about sixteen birds was 

 observed on St. Swithin's Farm, Barkingside. On being disturbed they went 

 away in an easterly direction. Two of them which were subsequently shot proved 

 to be adult males. Towards the end of May, a flock of five was seen near 

 Harwich (40. xii. 264), and Mr. Kerry informs me that on June 23rd he saw, 

 near Harwich, a flock of fifteen or sixteen birds which he believes to have been 

 of this species, Mr. A. F. Gates, of Stratford (40. xii. 264), observed about a 

 dozen in a ploughed field near Blake Hall Station on June loth. Lieut.-Col. 

 Marsden, of Colchester, saw a couple shot by a gamekeeper on Mr. Blanchard's estate, 

 near Walton-on -the- Naze, on Oct. i8th, 1888, when two others were seen but not 

 shot. The crops of the two that were obtained were full of corn. They were 

 preserved at Colchester for a Col. Davis, who has the shooting on the estate. Mr, 

 Pettitt preserved one shot at Fingringhoe Hall on Feb. 4th, 1889, and saw 

 another (a male) killed at New Bridge Mill, near Colchester, by a Mr. Argent 

 about Nov., 1888. During the summer Mr, Travis of Saffron Walden received 

 for preservation no less than thirteen ; but, strangely enough, not one of these 

 was shot in Essex, though five or six of them were killed at either Whittlesford or 

 Duxford, both of which places are in Cambridgeshire, though very close to the 

 Essex border. Mr, Travis was, however, assured by the bailiff on one of Lord 

 Braybrooke's farms near Audley End, that he had seen a flock of a dozen there, 



Mr. Walter Crouch communicates the interesting fact that some specimens 

 still survived in the county during the summer of 1889. He writes : — 



" On July 19th about a dozen passed over St. Swithin's Farm, Barkingside, close 

 by the homestead, and not 100 yards from the spot where the covey of sixteen 

 alighted on June 4th, 1888. They were flying over a field of wheat in a southerly 

 direction, and very low. They were seen by the tenant, Mr. Bolton, and several 

 others, who had not only seen the live birds last year, but also the two specimens 

 which were then shot. * * » They were again seen close by the stack -yard on 

 Aug. loth by Mr. Hatton and another, and I have since learned that a covey of 

 about twelve were seen early in July about three and a half miles away, near 

 Lawn Farm, Fairlop Plain." 



