Notes on Pallas' s Sand-gronse in Scotland. 107 



their eminent historian, Professor Newton, is not' entirely 

 free from objection. My friend Mr Eagle Clarke thinks it 

 not improbable that these erratic wanderings take place only 

 during years of exceptional snow over some part of the 

 breeding area, large numbers of birds being in consequence 

 unable to remain in their usual haunts on their arrival in 

 the spring, and being thus forced to set out in searcli of new 

 quarters. Be that as it may, the fact remains that the years 

 1863 and 1888 — exactly a quarter of a century apart — 

 witnessed two of these phenomenal movements on a scale 

 nnprecedented in the annals of ornithology. As regards 

 numbers, the exodus of 1888 seems to have been by far the 

 more remarkable. 



Some valuable records of Sand-grouse in Scotland during 

 the 1863 visitation were communicated to the Society the 

 following year by the late Dr J. A. Smith {Proceedings, vol. 

 iii., p. 178). 



The records which I am about to place before you in 

 connection w^ith the 1888 visitation do not claim to be even 

 approximately complete as a list of Scottish occurrences, 

 being — except in so far as relates to the Lothians — compiled 

 almost entirely from such of the numerous communications 

 to the newsjDapers and other publications as I have from time 

 to time in ordinary course observed. They are, however, 

 sufficiently numerous to indicate the large proportions and 

 wide-spread character of the visitation, and show Avith 

 tolerable certainty the dates of arrival on our coasts. 



I may here state that the birds were noticed in Poland on 

 15th April, then from day to day, in a gradually extending 

 line, at localities further and further to the West, till they 

 appeared at Heligoland on the 8r.h of May. Herr Gatke's 

 notes from that island, published in the Zoologist for July, 

 are w^ell worth transcribing. They run as follows : — 



"On 8th of May, 12 birds; 13th, a score; 14th, some; 



15th, some ; 16th, flights from 5 to 20, 25 shot ; 17th, L , 



early this morning, on Sandy Island, shot 18; 18th, flights 

 from 20 to 200 head ; 19th, a few ; 20t]i, small flocks from 

 6 to 20 ; 21st fog, none seen ; 22d, hundreds, many females; 

 23d, flocks from 10 to 40 ; 24th, many great flights, 50 to 



