8888 “Birds. 
Nordeney, and one out of a pack of ten was shot in the vast range of heath and moor- 
land which separates Hanover from Holland. Field,’ 
Pallas’ Sand Grouse in Wiltshire—1I am sorry that absence on the Continent has 
prevented me from sending you earlier notice of the occurrence of the above bird in 
this county. It was a female, quite alone, and evidently a straggler from the main 
body, which seems to have directed its flight along the eastern coast. It was observed 
on the 29th of June last, and was killed by Mr. Joseph Dean, in the parish of 
Imber, a very exposed, not to say desolate, district on Salisbury Plain, and very nearly 
the same locality whence I obtained my specimen of the pratincole, as recorded in the 
‘ Zoologist’ (Zool. 3843). Mr. Dean adds that its flight was rather rapid, and that it 
was flying, when he met with it, over some arable land, the direction being from north 
to south—Alfred Charles Smith; Yatesbury Rectory, Calne, November 5, 1863. 
Pallas’ Sand Grouse in Shetland.—This remarkable bird, so long expected, has 
at last appeared in these islands. On the morning of the 28th of October, after a 
steady breeze from S.W., I caught a glimpse of one as it dashed out of a clump of 
elders in the garden at Halligarth, and next day I obtained an equally brief view Of 
one beneath a willow hedge not far from the same spot. About the same time birds 
precisely answering to the description of this species, were seen at Haroldswick, and 
also in the island of Balta. On the 2nd of November I saw one in a stubble field 
close to the sea-beach, where, after much trouble, I shot it two days afterwards. It 
usually kept to the most exposed situations, aud was so extremely shy that I am sure 
I should never have got it had I not chanced to see it as it rose from some long grass, 
which served to screen me from observation. It always took wing at the slightest ap- 
pearance of danger, at the same time uttering a succession of clear, distinct notes : its 
wildness and its similarity in colour to the soil prevented me from seeing mye of its 
feeding habits, but it appeared to advance with a gentle gliding motion, keeping th¢ 
breast so low that the feathers of that part came in contact with the ground, as was 
evident by their wet and muddy state when the bird was shot. The flight was much 
like that of the golden plover, and sometimes extremely rapid: once, when the bird 
happened to get among some starlings, it was surrounded and mobbed by them, as 
though it had been a hawk, but a few strokes with its wings soon carried it beyond the 
reach of annoyance. It proved to be a female, the ovary containing a large cluster of 
eggs, many of which were about the size of turnip-seed: the elongated feathers of the 
wings and tail were in perfect condition. The only fat was at the lower part of the 
neck, where it was present in considerable quantity, and there was a peculiar want of 
firmness in the flesh. The crop was distended to about the size of a chestnut with 
seeds, a few of which were of a kind unknown to me, but the greater number were 
those of Stellaria media and Plantago maritima; in the gizzard there were crushed 
seeds and a large quantity of clear, rounded fragments of quartz. I was disappointed 
in my expectation of finding barley in the crop, as a great deal of that grain was 
strewn about the portion of the ground most frequented by the bird. The appearance 
of the sternum is remarkable, partly on account of the depth of the keel, which is very 
great in proportion to its length, and, among British birds at least, only equalled, but 
not exceeded, in that respect by that of the swift: it is very different from that of the 
true grouse (and I think also of the quail and the partridge), in which there are always 
two sinuses, and the furcula is long, slender and furnished with a large flattened 
process at the junction of the crura, whereas, in the sternum of the present species, 
there is but one sinus, and the furcula, besides being short and rather stout, is merely 
