204 The New British Sand-G-rouse. 



If all the specimens observed commenced their westward 

 journey in a single flock, they certainly broke up subsequently 

 into several smaller ones, for the flocks observed in Sweden, 

 Heligoland, and Hanover consisted of a few individuals only. 

 It is not possible to state, from the data given, what was the pre- 

 cise day when they first appeared this year in these islands. 

 The whole arrival is much earlier than in 1859 ; M. Schollick's 

 is the first published announcement, and also the earliest date 

 precisely given. Mr. Tristram's statement that the flock at 

 Stockton-on-Tees was observed " several weeks" prior to June 

 15th (the date of his letter to the Field) is somewhat indefinite. 

 Mr. Wilkinson's statement that specimens were shot "a few 

 days before Mr. Schollick's letter appeared in the Times" is 

 more precise. It would have been worth while, however, to 

 have hunted out, while the facts were fresh in remembrance, 

 whether they were or were not shot before the 22nd, the day 

 on which Mr. Schollick's were killed. Whatever the dates of 

 arrival, however, they speedily spread themselves over the 

 country, but to the north more quickly than to the south. They 

 were shot at Aberdeen on the 28th of May, but were not killed 

 in Cornwall till June 10th or 12th. In Ireland they were 

 observed on the 16th of June, and in the Scilly Islands on the 

 23rd. Their actual arrival was observed at least on v two 

 occasions, but at an interval of more than a month, viz., 

 May 28th on the Suffolk coast, and June 29th on the coast of 

 Essex. Nearly a week before the earliest of these, specimens 

 had been shot by Mr. Schollick on the western shores of 

 England. Indeed, the rapidity with which they spread them- 

 selves is scarcely less remarkable than the fact of their reaching 

 the extreme borders of the land ; literally from Land's End to 

 John o' Groat's, and from the coasts of Norfolk, Suffolk, and 

 Essex in the east, to those of Lancashire and Donegal in the 

 west; the British Islands would seem not large enough to hold 

 them. That they found food of a suitable kind would appear 

 evident from the number stated to have been in good condition; 

 indeed, not one was said to have been otherwise. 



The question as to the cause of these two unusual and most 

 prolonged migrations, is a very tempting, but, I fear, insoluble 

 one. What special circumstances have been in operation during 

 the present summer and that of 1859, which never occurred 

 before, to bring these birds to our shores during the very many 

 years that attention has been closely directed to the visits of 

 rare and strange birds ? Of this only can we, I think, be cer- 

 tain, that the causes, whatever they were, originated in their 

 own country rather than here. It is more reasonable to suppose 

 that they ware wrged rather than drawn from their home ; for 

 what attractive power can we imagine to extend its influence 



