NOTES AND QUERIES. 265 



are thickly clothed with short feathers down to the blunt claws. I have 

 not much doubt that the specimen was one of a flock, as I heard that on 

 the 4th or 5th of June, one or more were taken or seen near Bournemouth, 

 and it is very probable that even previous to the 2nd a flock passed near 

 the same place, as the day before the one above mentioned was picked up 

 another, very much damaged and decomposed, was found not fifty yards 

 away. On June 8th a friend of mine saw a flock of strange birds — seven- 

 teen in number — flying swiftly in a westerly direction over the River Avon, 

 and as they flew very near to him he saw what he described as " a dark 

 mark across the breast " of each, and, as the birds were uttering a peculiar 

 noise at the time of their passage, I have not much hesitation in referring 

 them to the species in question. I am glad to say T have not heard of a 

 single specimen being shot in this neighbourhood. — G. B. Corbin (Ring- 

 wood, Hants). 



Dorsetsliire. — I am glad to say the recent migration of this bird into 

 England, the third and largest on record, has reached Dorsetshire. Six of 

 these birds were picked up dead, or dying, last week at Stoborough, Ware- 

 ham, on May 28th, under the telegraph-wires — a proof, if any were needed, 

 that the steppes of Tartary are not yet furnished with this higher stage of 

 civilisation. We may now possibly hear of the invasion extending farther 

 west. — J. C. Mansel-Pleydell (Whatcombe, Blandfordj. 



Isle of Man. — On May 22nd some of these birds made their appearance 

 in the Isle of Man. A little flock of eight were seen on that date at the 

 Lhau, and two of them, male and female, were shot. On May 28th one 

 was shot out of a flock of fifteen near Ballaskeg, Maughold. — Philip M. 

 C. Kermode (Ramsey, Isle of Man). 



Cumberland. — Up to the 10th of June the number of Sand Grouse 

 killed in Cumberland amounted to nineteen, and two, at least, of the hen 

 birds appeared to be incubating. — H. A. Macpherson. 



Pembrokeshire. — On May 28th Syrrhaptes paradoxus had reached Pem- 

 brokeshire. I have heard from Mr. F. Jeffreys, naturalist, of Haverford- 

 west, that one (a female) was shot at Ambleston, in the centre of the county, 

 some three miles from Stone Hall, on that date. The number of its 

 companions was not stated. — Murray A. Mathew (Buckland Dinham, 

 Frome, Somerset). 



Gloucestershire. — On June 2nd five Sand Grouse appeared on the large 

 fields between Ullen Wood Farm and Seven Springs House, a few miles 

 from Cheltenham, and two or three single birds subsequently appeared 

 there. They were seen to fly over a larch plantation, then wheeled and 

 alighted not far from the spot they had risen from. They were described 

 as "of a reddish yellow tint, with dark bars, and wings very pointed." 

 None were shot, but the description leaves very little doubt that they were 

 correctly identified. Another lot of six or seven birds (or possibly the 



