PALLAS'S SAND GROUSE IN NORFOLK. 451 



Professor Newton has favoured me with the following list of 

 plants determined for him by Mr. Eobert Service, grown from 

 seeds found in the crops of two birds killed in distant localities 

 in Norfolk, about June 22nd and 25th ; one produced, chiefly 

 Polygonum aviculare, with a few white clover, and a species of 

 Agrostis ; and the other Geranium molle, with a few Urtica 

 dioica, Rumex acetosa, Stellaria media, and a species of small 

 grass. 



Plumage and Moulting. — Mr. Stevenson has given a very 

 accurate description of the plumage as noted by him in birds 

 obtained in 1863 (' Birds of Norfolk,' pp. 397-8), but few of those 

 he saw were in the lovely new plumage, which most of those 

 killed here after the middle of September had assumed ; nor had 

 he the opportunity of watching the process of moulting so 

 fully as occurred during the present visitation. I may be 

 excused, therefore, for saying a few words on each subject. On 

 their first arrival here, their plumage, though clean, appeared 

 worn ; but by the middle of June, they began to present the 

 dirty appearance referred to by Prof. Newton (' Ibis, 1864, p. 200.) 

 On the 16th June two female specimens were much soiled about 

 the head and breast, and from that time both sexes seemed 

 to become more and more dirty and drabbled, until the new 

 feathers made their appearance on the head and neck. The first 

 signs of moulting noticed by me appeared in a male killed 

 on 16th June; the two long median rectrices were missing, 

 apparently from having been shed ; the whole plumage was 

 soiled and worn, and the feathers were loose, though no sign of 

 their successors was visible. Anotber, a male, killed on the 

 same date, was the first in which I detected new feathers : a few 

 scapulars, and some of the secondary coverts in each wing had 

 been replaced, but all the rest were old. Two other females 

 killed at the same time were in a very shabby condition, and on 

 skinning them the old feathers were found to be very loosely 

 attached, and many new ones, still enveloped in the sheath, 

 were making their appearance. On the 2nd July, a male had a 

 few new feathers on the back and among the wing coverts, and 

 between this date and the 14th July, several others occurred, 

 presenting much the same appearance as that last described ; 

 but on the last-named date, a male, very dirty, and in plumage so 

 worn, that the shafts of the long tail-feathers were almost bare, 



