264 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



subsequently shot, which proved to be adult males. I myself came across 

 about a dozen of them in a ploughed field uear Blake Hall Station ou the 

 Ongarline, Great Eastern Railway, on June 10th. — A. F. Gates (Marsh 

 Gate Lane, Stratford). 



My brother, Mr. G. F. Mathew, R.N., informs me of a flock of five 

 having been seen near Harwich towards the end of May. — Murray A. 

 Mathew (Buckland Dinham, Frome, Somerset). 



Kent. — Will you kindly allow me to place ou record in ' The Zoologist ' 

 what I have not the least doubt was an occurrence of Pallas's Sand Grouse 

 in this neighbourhood (St. Peter's, Thanet). A bird was first seen on 

 May 30th, and was then feeding on a field of recently-sown spring tares. 

 What first attracted my attention to it was that it did not rise and fly away 

 when I entered the field, as was done by several wild Rock Doves, which 

 were feeding near it. However, it would not allow a very near approach, 

 but ran with considerable speed over the ground with its body close down, 

 and looking almost like a small animal. When at last made to fly, by a 

 dog I had with me, it went at a very rapid pace, and looked much like a 

 Golden Plover, ouly larger, uttering as it flew a low piping note. On the 

 morning of the following day (May 31st) this bird again made its appear- 

 ance in the same field, but all attempts to get near it were futile. I must 

 not omit to say that the colour, as seen from a distance, was light greyish 

 brown.— H. S. D. Byron (Bromstone Farm, St. Peter's, Thanet). 



Hampshire. — It may interest your readers to know that I saw a pair of 

 Pallas's Sand Grouse (Syrrhaptes paradoxus) at a birdstuffer's at Portsmouth 

 on the 31st ultimo, which had been obtained a few days previously on 

 Hayling Island, in Hampshire, just over the Sussex border. They were 

 killed out of a flock of about a dozen on Sinah Common, a district of sand- 

 hills and shingle. — William Jeffery (Ratham, Chichester). 



On the evening of May 20th a flock of between thirty and forty Sand 

 Grouse were observed flying across Broxhead Common, between Wolmer 

 and Aldershot. They were flying very fast towards the north-east. 



I have lately examined a specimen of Pallas's Sand Grouse, which was 

 picked up in the New Forest on June 2nd, having been killed by flying 

 against the telegraph-wires. It was a female, weighing 8£ ounces, and was 

 in good condition except that its neck, breast, and one wing were much 

 damaged by collision with the wires. Its crop, which was cut to pieces, 

 must have been full of small seeds (some of which I enclose for identifica- 

 tion), and some few of the same I found in the gizzard. I counted twenty- 

 seven eggs in the ovary, but they were very minute, the largest not much 

 exceeding in size the head of a pin. Its most remarkable feature, of course, 

 was the structure of the foot, so different to anything I had ever seen 

 before, without a hind toe, the under part forming quite a pad thickly 

 covered with small round warty protuberances, whilst the whole leg and foot 



