5'46 Notes on Sand Grouse. By George Bolam. 



16th August I visited Ross and walked up to within fifteen yards 

 of a flock of fifty or sixty birds ; they were found in one of the 

 large flats amongst the sand hills, and were not visible until we 

 were close upon them. Just before taking wing, the whole flock 

 ran together into a compact mass, and as they rose a good deal 

 of noise was made, the call of " tick-a-rick " " tick-a-rick " 

 being often repeated, and the whirring made by so many rapidly 

 moving pinions was also considerable. As demonstrated by the 

 tracks left upon the sand, the birds had been running about and 

 dusting themselves, and upon the ground we picked up a 

 quantity of feathers which had been cast off ; some of the 

 feathers, the rectrices and long wing-feathers in particular, were 

 a good deal worn and broken, but others were comparatively 

 perfect, the rich colouring and sharply defined spots on some of 

 the upper coverts, etc., being very fine and most striking. The 

 base of all the small body feathers is thickly clothed with a dark 

 rich brown-coloured down, which must afford the birds very 

 considerable protection against cold. Their moulting condition 

 gave the birds a very irregular and patchy appearance, and on 

 the ground they rather resembled a flock of Pigeons, but in 

 flight the curved wings and the way in which they flock 

 together and turn, is at once suggestive of Plovers. Although, 

 as has been said, the birds remained at Ross until late in autumn, 

 the flock became gradually much broken up and scattered about, 

 and after the end of October only occasional stragglers or small 

 wandering parties were to be met with. Mr Hardie, on 1 9th 

 October, reported that the flock, once 150 or 200 strong, had by 

 that time dwindled down to about 30 birds ; and Robertson from 

 Goswick wrote, that five which flew past him on or about 17th 

 October, were i( the only ones he had seen or heard of lately." 

 Many of the birds were shot upon neighbouring farms, or when 

 they strayed upon the sands at low-tide ; but whether this was 

 the main cause of their disappearance seems rather doubtful, for 

 even where unmolested they did not appear to remain. The 

 birds killed in the autumn, which I had opportunities of 

 examining, had quite completed their moult, and were in capital 

 condition ; the plumage, though a little darker generally than in 

 the case of birds killed in the spring, was not materially changed, 

 but the bloom upon the new feathers gave them a fresh 

 appearance, which those killed during the summer did not 

 display. 



