TIL-APPENDIX. 



PALLAS'S SAND-GROUSE. 



(Sept. S, 1888.) 



THE present year will be famous among ornitho- 

 logists as the year of the second great irruption 

 of Pallas' s Sand-grouse into Europe. These birds 

 were unknown in the British Islands until the year 

 1859, when three were obtained two in England, 

 and one in Wales. From this time until 1863, 

 the year of the first great irruption, no further 

 specimens were observed; but in that year they 

 visited this country in considerable numbers, ex- 

 tending their range as far west as the coast of 

 Donegal. Unfortunately, as is too often the case 

 with rare birds, the interest which they excited 

 was fatal to them ; and the main body, which 

 arrived early in May, was practically exterminated 

 by the end of June, though specimens were 

 obtained until the early spring of 1864, by which 

 time the whole of the unfortunate immigrants 

 had been destroyed. From that date until the 

 present year, though some few stragglers have 



