GREY niALAROPE. 437 



south-eastern and southern counties.* At that time, 

 according to Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., who publishedf a 

 very interesting paper on this extraordinary immigra- 

 tion, the dates of their appearance ranged from the 

 20th of August to the 8th of October, but the bulk of 

 the specimens were procured between the 15th and 25th 

 of September, and the largest number, in one day, on the 

 18th of that month. From Mr. Gurney's painstaking 

 researches it appears that upwards of five hundred of 

 these beautiful little creatures were sacrificed to the rage 

 for collecting specimens, of which number two hundred 

 and fifty were killed in Sussex alone, the habitual 

 tameness of this species and its unsuspecting nature, 

 everywhere exposing it to danger. It is difficult to 

 account in any satisfactory manner for so remarkable 

 an influx of a species, which, though a constant, has 

 been rarely known as a numerous, visitant to our 

 shores, but even if their abundance was in this in- 

 stance the result of an unusually favourable breeding 

 season, Mr. Gurney is probably right in presuming 

 that their appearance on our eastern and southern 

 coasts was owing to " the severe and premature gales " 

 which prevailed in September of that year. As far as 

 I could ascertain at that time, only four specimens were 

 procured in Norfolk ; the first on the 22nd of September, 

 which was seen swimming in a small pond on Swarde- 

 stone Common, and was killed by an old woman with 



* Mr. Gould (" Birds of Great Britain,") speaks of a considerable 

 flight which appeared some years since on the coasts of Devon 

 and Cornwall when large numbers were killed during the month 

 of October, and he further states that the first time this species 

 was observed in abundance at Plymouth, was about five and thirty 

 years ago. 



f " A Summary of the occurrences of the Grey Phalarope in 

 Great Britain during the Autumn of 1866," by J. H. Gurney, juu. 



