PALLAS'S SAND-GROUSE. 385 



this bird was the only one that fell to the gun. He 

 brought it to me, and it proved to be a female sand- 

 grouse, in very good condition. It did not, however, 

 possess the long tail feathers which all the other 

 specimens I have seen have done." 



June 10th and llth. Eighteen birds, male and 

 female, shot on Horsey beach, near Yarmouth. Of 

 this, the largest flock observed in our eastern counties, 

 Mr. Rising has kindly supplied me with the following 

 particulars : e( On the 9th, while out walking on the 

 beach here, I saw a large flock of birds, more than 

 forty, which I mistook for golden plover. They rose 

 within fifty yards and flew seawards, returning back 

 over my head at about twenty yards high, quietly calling 

 out f click, click, 5 and returned to the spot whence they 

 rose. I felt strongly impressed from their cry that they 

 were a kind I had never seen before, although I had not 

 noticed then their peculiar tail feathers. On my way 

 home, the birds again rose, took a quiet circuit round, 

 making the same easy cry, and returned to the same 

 spot." On the following morning Mr. Rising went over 

 to Yarmouth, where he heard of the sand-grouse just 

 killed there, and felt sure that the Horsey birds were of 

 the same kind. Later in the day, his son, Captain Rising, 

 went down to the beach, where he found the covey in 

 the same locality, and succeeded in bagging ten; of 

 which six fell to his second barrel, and two other winged 

 birds were afterwards found. On the same evening 

 three more were secured, and three on the following 

 morning (llth), making in all eighteen specimens, 

 males and females, in nearly equal numbers. Of this 

 fine series, all but four or five passed into the hands of 

 a game dealer at Yarmouth, by whom they were sold to 

 various collectors, both here and at a distance, which 

 accounts for the different notices of these Horsey birds 

 which appeared in the " Times" and " Field ;" and the 



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