The New British Sand-Grouse. 199 



1838), as inhabiting Eastern Europe. He at the same time sepa- 

 rated the species of Pterocles and the Syrrhaptes from the true 

 grouse, as a separate family, which he named Pterocliclce. In 

 a subsequent list he omitted the Syrrhaptes. Again, with in- 

 stinctive pertinacity, he added it to the Catalogue des Oiseaux 

 d'Europe, published by Parzudaki, the Parisian naturalist, in 

 1856, but modestly accompanying it with a query. Even this 

 was too much for certain severe ornithological critics, who in- 

 sisted upon the warrant for its appearance at all being brought 

 into court ; and Bonaparte, not being able to produce it, had to 

 abandon the cause of his client. 



In 1859 this vexed question was finally set at rest. In July 

 of that year a very fine adult male bird of this species was 

 brought to me in Liverpool, by Mr. Thomas Chaffers, on whose 

 farm, near Tremadoc, it had been shot on the 9th of that month, 

 and was still in the flesh. My first impression was that it had 

 been imported alive, and had escaped from confinement. A 

 moment's examination disproved this most thoroughly ; for all 

 birds of the game kind are especially impatient of confinement, 

 shy, and wild, and when imported are always in excessively 

 dilapidated condition, owing to the violent manner in which 

 they knock themselves about in their attempt to escape from 

 confinement or the observation of man. The scalp is generally 

 torn nearly off the head, the wing and tail feathers are broken, 

 and the whole plumage is draggled and dirty. To such an extent 

 is this the case, that there are few more sorry-looking scare- 

 crows than newly-imported birds of this order, and they do not 

 recover their good looks until they have moulted. Here, how- 

 ever, was a bird as nearly perfect as could be. The plumage 

 was unruffled ; the delicate prolongations of certain feathers of 

 the wing and tail, especially liable to be damaged, were un- 

 broken, and the whole plumage was beautifully smooth and 

 clean. It was one of three birds observed by a labourer 

 named Quin, on a field of loamy sand, where he was engaged 

 scuffling turnips. His attention was drawn to them by hearing 

 a peculiar " chattering, whistling " noise, and having a gun 

 near at hand, he succeeded in shooting one, the other two flying 

 away, at a height of thirty or forty feet, directly eastward across 

 the river G-lasslyn into Merionethshire. They were never seen 

 in the neighbourhood before or after that time. The crop of 

 the one killed contained rape or cole-seed, and seeds of the 

 furze, as kindly determined for me by Dr. Collingwood, Lecturer 

 on Botany at the Liverpool School of Medicine. 



Early in the same month, but the precise day unfortunately 

 not stated, a very beautiful male bird was shot in the parish of 

 Walpole St. Peter's, in Norfolk, about two miles from the 

 Wash. This bird is now in the Lynn Museum, to which it was 



