Special Migrations. 249 



the interior of Africa to the cultivated districts around 

 Cape Colony, which, before the country was explored, used 

 to take place every three or four years, was, perhaps, an 

 example of the second of these causes, though neither of 

 them seem sufficient to explain some of the special bird 

 migrations. 



Pallas' Sand Grouse (Syrrhaptes paradoxus) visited 

 Europe in great numbers in the summer of 1863, and 

 again, twenty-five years later, in 1888. On both occasions 

 many of them reached the British Isles, and a few of 

 those that came in 1888 remained and reared young in 

 the summer of 1889. A climate, however, so different 

 from their native one in the deserts of Tartary, was not 

 likely to suit them, and I believe none of them survived 

 the change for very long. 



An immense nock, numbering thousands, of the Eose- 

 Colored Pastor {Pastor roseus), a bird allied to the starling, 

 came from the bird's native haunts in Armenia, and 

 visited Bulgaria in the summers of 1877 and 1889. They 

 were very tame and could easily be caught, but as they 

 fed mainly on grasshoppers, they were regarded rather as 

 a blessing, and were thus saved from much persecution. 



The Evening Grosbeak (Coccothraustes vespertina), a bird 

 which usually resides in the North -West and Rocky 

 Mountain district, came east in numerous Hocks during 

 the winter of 1890. They reached Toronto about the 

 middle of January and Montreal about the end of that 

 month. Some flocks went south of the Great Lakes and 

 visited Pennsylvania and New York States. Others went 

 on to the New England districts, where they had never 

 before been seen. Nearly all of them returned to the 

 North-West in March or April, though it was said that a 

 few lingered until the middle of May, but there has been, 

 as yet, no repetition of the visit. 



The Pine Grosbeaks (Pinicola enuclcator), some of which 

 visit Montreal nearly every winter, accompanied the 



