450 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



went out to catch it, thinking his son's pinioned bird had 

 escaped ; on approaching the bird it "ran and skulked in a little 

 ditch," and did not rise till just as he was about to put his hand 

 on it when it flew away quite strong ; he thinks it was a hen 

 bird. Another, now in Mr. Gurney's aviary at Northrepps, was 

 found, on the 31st October, floundering in a wet ditch at Suffield, 

 and taken by hand. Such behaviour is difficult to account for. 



Food. — The food of the Sand Grouse in this county has 

 proved to consist almost entirely of the small seeds of plants 

 which are usually regarded as " weeds." Very few instances 

 have come to my knowledge out of the very large number which 

 I have examined, or which have been reported to me, in which 

 grain formed any part of their food ; one was killed at Thornham 

 on 18th September, which contained thirty grains of wheat ; a 

 second killed about the 5th October, near West Winch, contained 

 both wheat and rye ; a third killed near Swaff ham, on the 

 1st October, contained the large number of 381 grains of 

 wheat; and a fourth "telegraphed" at Eoughton Heath, on 

 13th October, contained some grains of wheat in the husks. 

 These, it will be observed, were all killed after the fields had 

 been cleared at the close of our very protracted harvest. I 

 have also beard of a few others which had to a limited extent 

 been feeding on corn. Early in the season one sample of food 

 produced 146 plants, eighty of which were Polygonum aviculare, 

 a common and very troublesome weed known as knot-grass ; 

 forty-nine plants were Omithopus perpusillus, the common birds- 

 foot ; and seventeen, a species of trifolium, not yet determinable. 

 A later sample produced plants of Trifolium procumbens and 

 saintfoin ; a third, later still, consisted almost entirely of the 

 seeds of the common chickweed, and a grass, very many plants 

 of each. A very favourite food appears to be the seeds of 

 a species of Silene and Suceda maritima, intermixed with which 

 I have found portions of the succulent leaves and shoots of the 

 latter plant. Convolvulus soldinella and Honckenya peploides 

 orow in abundance near some of their favourite feeding-places ; 

 but I have searched in vain for their large and apparently 

 tempting seeds, the birds evidently preferring the minute seeds 

 already enumerated. I am greatly indebted to Mr. W. Carruthers 

 and Mr. Herbert Geldart, for assistance in determining the 

 species of the seeds which formed the food of the Sand Grouse 

 in this county. 



