238 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



nest. We put up plenty of cock birds ; but for a long time failed 

 in finding the nest. At last, well on in the day, and just as we 

 were thinking of returning to the inn, a hen bird rose off her nest 

 about ten yards in front of us. It contained nine very light-col- 

 oured eggs ; the nest was a deepish cup, scraped, or chosen, in the 

 turf, on the flat top of a rocky slope, and sparingly lined with 

 slender grasses and a few feathers." 



Mr Elwes has stated to me that out of nineteen Ptarmigan shot in 

 the district of Gairloch, in the west of Eoss-shire, " some were very 

 backward in their winter plumage, and had scarcely a white feather 

 in their backs." The assumption of the full winter dress appears 

 in a great measure to depend on the state of the season, and the 

 same remark applies to that of the spring and autumn. 



PALLAS'S SAND GROUSE. 



SYRRHAPTES PARADOXUS. 



EARLY in the summer of 1863, Scotland shared with other parts 

 of Britain in the extraordinary irruption of this very interesting 

 bird which then took place. Its first occurrence north of the 

 Tweed, of which I have any record, was obligingly communicated 

 to me by my friend Mr Harvie Brown, who examined three 

 specimens killed in Stirlingshire on the 13th May of that year; 

 and the latest instances of its capture, which were from the Outer 

 Hebrides and the Shetland islands in the month of October follow- 

 ing, shew that during the five months it remained with us, it had 

 gradually retreated to, or what is more likely, been driven in its 

 wild and excited flight upon less frequented tracts in a vain effort 

 to find that rest which was denied to it on the mainland. 



The following records, noted at the time, are all I have been able 

 to glean respecting the appearance of the bird in Scotland. Very 

 many more specimens. were no doubt obtained and probably lost 

 through ignorance of the species; consequently the importance of 

 its occurrence has been in a great measure lost sight of. 



1863, May 13th. Three specimens were shot in Stirlingshire 

 two of them males, the sex of the other unknown. One of these 

 birds is in Mr Harvie Brown's collection, another in the possession 

 of Dr Brotherston of Alloa, and the third in the Alloa Museum. 

 The three were killed about a mile and a half east of Stirling. 



