330 Tetraonidce. 



covered rocks or snow-patches around.* It is precisely the same 

 with the Red Grouse of England, for the dark red-brown heather 

 in which it loves to dwell is very much of the same hue with that 

 of its plumage. It is little known outside the British Isles, but is- 

 called in France Tetras rouge, and sometimes Tetras des saules, 

 1 Willow Grouse j' and sometimes Poule de niarais, ' Marsh or 

 Moor Fowl/ 



128. PALLAS' SAND GROUSE (Syrrhapies paradoxus). 



Up to the year 1863 this handsome species was almost unknown 

 not only in these islands but on the continent of Europe ; when 

 suddenly in the early summer of that year a vast irruption of 

 them occurred, more especially on our Eastern coasts; and it 

 subsequently appeared that this strange invasion extended over 

 the whole of Central Europe. Driven from its home in the 

 steppes of Tartary, if not in the more Eastern countries of China 

 and Siberia, where it also abounds, this horde of wanderers 

 started Westwards, and spreading themselves over some twenty 

 degrees of latitude, the more advanced portion penetrated as far 

 as our island. What numbers migrated in this extraordinary 

 manner; what vast flocks in all probability started on this 

 lengthened journey ; how many halted on the way it is impos- 

 sible even to guess ; but in a most masterly paper on the subject 

 drawn up by Professor Newton, at that time editor of the Ibis, 

 and published by him in that journal,f he has satisfactorily 

 proved that several hundreds are known to have reached our 

 shores, after a flight of, at the least computation, some four 

 thousand geographical miles. What could have caused this 

 eccentric movement of the Asiatic species of Grouse we are con- 

 sidering, this ' Tartar invasion/ or ' Scythian exodus/ as Mr. 

 Newton styles it, it is beyond my power to explain ; whether the 



* For a further account of the two species of Alpine Grouse or Ptarmigan, 

 and how I met with them in Norway, see Zoologist for 1851, pp. 2977-9 ; see 

 also in the same useful periodical for 1858, p. 6265. 



t IUs for 1864, vol. vi., pp. 185-222. 



