36 PTEROCLIDiE. 



Belluno and Novara, in Northern Italy ; Perpignan at the 

 eastern, and Bayonne at the western extremities of the 

 Pyrenean chain. In France, according to Degland and 

 Gerbe, they were found all over the basins of the Seine, the 

 Loire, the Gironde, and the Khone, reaching as far as the 

 shores of the Atlantic, where the date of the last capture, at 

 Sables d'Olonne, in Vendee, in February 1864, coincides 

 with that of the last and one of the most western of the 

 occurrences in England. In the Baltic they occurred both 

 on the southern shores, and as far as Nykoping, in Sweden ; 

 whilst examples were obtained in Norway up to 62 N. lat. ; 

 and a flock even reached the distant Faeroes in May. The 

 main body appears to have swept through Germany as far 

 as the North Sea, and finding the sandhills of the coasts 

 of Denmark, Holland, and Belgium suited to their habits, 

 they took up their abode there in considerable numbers. 

 The dunes of Zandvoort, already visited by a pair in 1859, 

 again attracted several bands, and at least one clutch of eggs 

 was taken ; but it was in Denmark that the most interest- 

 ing details were obtained, and the following abstract of a 

 paper by Professor Eeinhardt, of Copenhagen, is furnished 

 by Professor Newton : 



" Early in June last, Herr Bulow, an officer in the 

 Custom-house at Eingkjobing, sent the Professor several 

 living birds which had been snared by a gunner on their 

 nests in the above-mentioned district, together with four of 

 their eggs. One of the latter was found by Herr Bulow in 

 the box which conveyed the birds, having been laid on the 

 journey. It was colourless, indicating that it had been 

 prematurely produced. The other three eggs were fully 

 coloured. It appears that this gunner found two nests of 

 Syrrhaptes in his own neighbourhood, and a third at a place 

 called Bierregaard. On two of the nests both the birds 

 (in each case the hens first and then the cocks) were caught, 

 on the 6th June. These nests were near one another ; and 

 one, containing three eggs, consisted of a slight depression 

 in the sand, lined with a little dry marram. The other had 

 only two eggs, was placed among some ling, and furnished 



