A BIRDLOVER'S YEAR 



passes and valleys of France and Italy. 

 The birds which are lost are generally the 

 victims of severe gales, which carry them 

 completely out of their reckonings. When 

 true ocean-birds are found scattered inland 

 it generally means that the weather of the 

 Atlantic has been very violent. In the 

 October gales of 1892, two different kinds of 

 petrels, the eastern limit of whose ocean 

 range is as a rule the Azores, were blown on 

 to our coasts. The late Mr. Cornish was of 

 the opinion that birds have an instinctive 

 knowledge that if they once surrender them- 

 selves to the force of the wind and allow 

 themselves to drift they are lost. 



Occasionally there is a curious and sudden 

 migration of a certain species previously 

 unknown to our shores. An instance of 

 this was afforded by Pallas's sand-grouse, a 

 bird which ranges from Northern China 

 across Central Asia, and as a rule never 

 visits Great Britain. In 1888 an incal- 

 culable number of these birds arrived, but 

 as far as I know no reason was forthcoming 

 to account for the circumstance. 



The late Mr. Seebohm, who was also a 

 great traveller, during one of his visits to 

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