NOTES. 1G7 



greater part of three consecutive winters on this particular 

 island without seeing the species. However, they might 

 easily have been there for all that, as, owing to the local 

 lochmen being unwilling to go more than a quarter of a mile 

 from land, and then only in very calm weather, I was rather 

 handicapped as far as my observations of the sea Ducks were 

 concerned. 



H. W. Robinson. 



PALLAS'S SAND-GROUSE IN CHESHIRE. 



On or aboat the lltli of June, 1908, two Sand-Grouse 

 {Syrrhaptes paradoxus) were observed in a field of roots at 

 Wythenshawe, Cheshire, by Mr. H. V. MacMaster. Their 

 plumage and " pigeon-like " heads at once attracted his 

 attention, and he stood for some time at a distance of about 

 thirty-five yards from them watching them feeding. When 

 he approached a little nearer, one of the birds got up and 

 called " chack, chack," and then both flew away with 

 remarkably rapid and strong flight, which reminded him of 

 the flight of the Golden Plover, a bird which is common on 

 the Withenshawe fields in winter. Mr. MacMaster, though he 

 was struck with the long wings and tails of the birds when 

 they rose, is not prepared to say whether they were a 

 male and female. 



T. A. Coward. 



SUPPOSED BLACK GROUSE AND PTARMIGAN 

 FROM IRISH CAVES. 



The mistake over this subject in the "Irish Naturalist" 

 (1899, pp. 17 and 37) has unfortunately been adopted in 

 British Birds {aiitea, p. 127). As I pointed out in " The 

 Birds of Ireland " (p. 231), I had the able assistance of Mr. E. T. 

 Newton and Dr. Forsyth Major, as well as of Dr. Scharff to 

 determine the humerus from the Ballynamintra Cave, in co. 

 Waterford, of which I was the finder. The conclusion arrived 

 at was that this bone agrees far more closely with that of a 

 common fowl, and as it was found in the superficial stratum, 

 I ha.ve no doubt it was brought in by a fox in recent times. 

 It can be seen in the Dublin Museum, where it is labelled 

 G alius. Among the numerous bones of birds found by me 

 during the past eight years in the caves of Shgo, Clare and 

 Cork, and which Mr. E. T. Newton has kindly determined 

 for us, the Black Grouse is not represented, and I know of 

 no evidence that it was indigenous in Ireland. 



As regards the supposed bones of Ptarmigan, these also 



