208 Prof. A. Newton on the 



laid upon me by the Editor of ' The Ibis/ of telling, from 

 the beginning, in its pages the story of the latest irruption 

 of Syrrhaptes into Europe, I think it advisable to give the 

 readers of this Journal the particulars of one of the most 

 gratifying results of that remarkable event. This seems the 

 more necessary since the main fact was announced by me at 

 the last meeting of the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, held at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in September 

 1889, when I had the pleasure of exhibiting to those present 

 a specimen of the chick of Syrrhaptes paradoxus — the first, 

 so far as I know, that had ever been brought to the notice 

 of any body of naturalists, and, moreover, one that had been 

 hatched in a free state in this island. 



The readers of Mr. H. A. Macpherson's interesting little 

 pamphlet* will be aware that in 1888 Major Chadwick in- 

 formed Mr. Harvie-Brown that the gamekeeper of the 

 former, with the aid of a spaniel-dog, about the end of June 

 in that year, discovered some newly hatched Sand-Grouse on 

 the sand-hills of Moray, which at the time were frequented 

 by companies of from two to three hundred birds of this 

 species. By the kindness of those gentlemen I was placed 

 in communication with this gamekeeper, by name Alexander 

 Scott, who in answer to my enquiries favoured me with an 

 account so satisfactory that I had no hesitation in accepting 

 it. Though extracts from his letters to me have been already 

 printed by Mr. Macpherson, it seems due to the observer 

 that all his information should be here inserted. Writing 

 to me on the 16th of February, 1889, Scott stated: — 



" About the Sand-Grouse, I may mention that one day last 

 summer, the latter end of June, in going my rounds I started 

 a pair of Sand-Grouse, which allowed me to get within about 

 ten yards of them. I was surprised to see they only flew 

 about forty yards. I went to where they got up and ex- 

 amined the place, when I first got one young and then 

 another, about ten yards apart. 



* The Visitation of Pallas's Sand-Grouse to Scotland in 1888. By 

 Rev. II. A. Macpherson, M.A. London : 1889 (Porter, Princes Street, 

 Cavendish Square). 



