PREFACE. Vll 



migration or owing to getting mixed up with flocks of 

 our own regular visitants in what has been a common 

 breeding ground, and accompanying them. 



By irregular migration I mean the exceptional move- 

 ments of some birds that cannot be considered as usually 

 belonging in any way to the great migratorial band, and 

 of others which, although they may be considered migratory, 

 do not perform their journeys with the same punctuality 

 as the regular migrants. 



Perhaps the best example of the first of these excep- 

 tional movements may be found in that wonderful migration 

 of the Sand Grouse, who, leaving their own homes on the 

 plains of Tartary, migrated westward in immense numbers, 

 some of them reaching as far as Ireland; some even passing 

 further were probably lost in the Atlantic.. Although these 

 birds came from the East the first occurrence recorded in 

 these islands was at Tremadoc, in Wales, on the Oth of July, 

 1859 ; a few others made their appearance during that year, 

 but the real great immigration did not take place until the 

 year 1864. In the May of that year these birds made their 

 appearance in great numbers, especially in the eastern 

 counties ; from thence they spread themselves throughout 

 the whole country. General as this migration was I cannot 

 find that any of these birds made their appearance in this 

 particular county, although many specimens were obtained 

 in the neighbouring counties of Devon, Dorset, Wilts and 

 Gloucester. A very full account of this migration is to be 



