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XXVI. 



ON THE OCCUEEENCE OP PALLAS'S SANDGEOUSE (SYR- 

 RHAPTES PARADOXUS) IN IRELAND. By EOBEET F. 

 SCHAEPF, B. So., Ph. D., M.E.I.A., Curator of the Natural 

 History Department, Museum of Science and Art, Dublin. 



[Read December 12, 1888.] 



A quarter of a century ago (in the year 1863) there occurred, to 

 use the words of Professor Newton, a Tartar invasion of Europe 

 unparalleled in the annals of ornithology. This was the irruption of 

 Pallas's sandgrouse, of which hundreds, and probably many thou- 

 sands, left the sandy deserts of Tartary and passed in a westerly 

 direction across Central Europe. The extreme west attained by 

 the migrants on this occasion was Naran, Co. Donegal. Had they 

 not been ruthlessly slaughtered, the species would have flourished 

 in Western Europe, having actually bred in Jutland and Holland. 



It is remarkable that, after an interval of twenty-five years, the 

 species has reappeared in Europe, many having crossed the North 

 Sea, and arrived in England. Our earliest information regarding 

 this present irruption is derived from Dr. A. B. Meyer, of the 

 Royal Zoological Museum at Dresden, who wrote to Nature, May 

 12th, 1888, on the subject. Dr. Meyer describes the reappearance 

 of the sandgrouse in large flocks, consisting apparently of in- 

 numerable individuals. The first record of their arrival in Europe 

 was established by their appearance on the 21st April, at Plock, and 

 in the markets at Warsaw. By the 27th they had reached Saxony, 

 in Germany, and on the 5th of May they were seen on the island 

 of Rugen, in the Baltic. All the flocks tended westward. 



The native habitat of Pallas's sandgrouse is the sandy steppes of 

 Central Asia. It breeds in Southern Siberia, and is resident in 

 Turkestan. In severe winters, when there is much snow, it visits 

 Northern China. In the following summer they leave that part of 



