SAND-GROUSE. 489 
these, however, were merely the skirmishers of a larger army which 
arrived in Galizia and Moravia on May 6th, and rolled westward to 
the Atlantic; spreading southward as far as Rimini in Italy, as well 
as to the Pyrenees. Northward they reached the Feeroes and about 
lat. 62° in Norway, while a few eggs were taken among the sand- 
hills of Denmark and Holland. In 1872 small flocks were observed 
in Northumberland and Ayrshire ; in 1876 a pack was seen in May 
near Winterton in Norfolk, and in October two birds were shot in 
co. Kildare, Ireland. Incidentally it may be mentioned that the 
year 1876 witnessed the establishment of an important colony on 
the Kirghiz steppes beyond the Volga. 
In 1888, from the end of February onwards, it was noticed that 
flocks of Sand-Grouse were in movement on the steppes of Oren- 
burg in Eastern Russia; next, flocks were observed passing over 
Poland, the Austrian Empire, and various parts of Germany ; while 
by May the invasion had reached the British Islands. The eastern 
districts were, naturally, the most favoured, and two clutches of eggs 
were taken on the wolds above Beverley in Yorkshire by Mr. 
Swailes ; but the birds were widely spread over the country, even to 
the extreme west. In Scotland, where Mr. W. Evans estimated 
that the sojourners were from 1,500 to 2,000 in number, a young 
bird was found on the Culbin Sands, Moray, in 1888 by Mr. 
Alexander Scott, game-keeper to Major Chadwick, who further 
succeeded in finding another nestling in 1889. This was sent in 
the flesh to Prof. Newton, and its portrait by Mr. Frohawk, with full 
description, appeared in ‘ The Ibis,’ 1890, pp. 207-214, pl. vii. As on 
the former invasion, visitors found their way to the Outer Hebrides, 
and some also alighted in the Orkneys and Shetlands. In Ireland a 
considerable number were captured or observed, the migration extend- 
ing on this occasion as far west as Belmullet, co. Mayo. A special 
Act of Parliament was passed for the protection of Sand-Grouse in 
1888, but very great destruction had already taken place during the 
summer of their arrival, and the Act did not take effect until 
February 1889, by which time most of the survivors of the 
“warm reception” given to the new-comers had succumbed to 
the moisture of our climate, or had departed for more congenial 
regions. 
On the Continent, the irruption of 1888 reached southward to 
Valencia in Spain, and northward to lat. 62° 24’ in Norway. The 
home of this species is to be found from the eastern side of the 
Caspian to the Tian-Shan and the Altai ranges, all over Mongolia 
and Southern Daiiria, down to the Koko-nor and Tsaidam, and in 
