lOG Proceedings of the Boyal Fhi/sical Society. 



Explanation of Plate. 



Fig. 1. Diagrammatic longitudinal section through genital segments of P. 

 vcrrucosits. a,h, testes ;/, funnel of vas deferens ; c, ovary ; d, atrial aperture. 



Fig. 2. Perivisceral corpuscles of P. verrucosus. 



Fi». 3. Emergence of dorsal vessel in segment 14 of P. verrucosvs. e, in- 

 testinal epithelium ; p, peritoneum ; d, dorsal vessel. 



Fie?. 4. Clitellar epithelium of P. nervosus. e, glandular cells ; t, circular ; 

 I, longitudinal muscles. 



Fig. 5. Oviduct of P. verrucosus, f, funnel; s, septum. 



Fig. 6. Accurately median section through vas deferens funnel of P. 

 verrucosus. 



Fio-. 7. Transverse section through extremities of testicular lobes. 



Fig. 8. Showing one lobe of testis and attachment to septum. 



Fig. 9. Spermatheca of P. nervosus. gl, glands surrounding the orifice. 



XIV. Notes on Pallas s Sand-grouse (Syrrhaptes paradoxus) 

 in Scotland during the recent great westward movement 

 of the Species. By Willtam Evans, Esq., E.R.S.E., etc. 



(Read 20th February 1889.) 



As the Fellows of the Society will doubtless remember, 

 British ornithologists were thrown into a perfect fever of 

 excitement in May last by the sudden appearance on our 

 shores of innumerable flocks of Pallas's Sand-grouse, a bird 

 which, with a few trifling exceptions, had not visited Europe 

 since the famous irruption of 1863. The species, I need 

 scarcely remind you, is an inhabitant of tlie vast steppes and 

 plains of Central Asia, being specially characteristic of the 

 deserts of Mongolia, in the southern parts of which it spends 

 the winter. According to some authorities, numbers also 

 winter on the Kirghiz steppes, immediately to the north-east 

 of the Caspian Sea, and thus at no great distance from tlie 

 confines of Eastern Europe. In the spring immense flocks 

 migrate to more northern localities to breed, and it is at this 

 season also that their periodical irruptions into Europe liave 

 taken place. I make no attempt to explain the cause of 

 these sudden westward movements, and would only remark 

 in passing, that the theory of over-population suggested by 



