AXD NEIGHBOURHOOD. 287 



occurrence in Northamptonshire during that year. 

 At the close of the year above mentioned, Lord 

 Burghley informed me that two Sand-Grouse had 

 been killed during the previous summer upon Lord 

 Exeter's property near Stamford, and put me into 

 communication with a gamekeeper named John 

 Munton, who in reply to my enquiry wrote, under 

 date of February 4, 1889 : — "Twelve of these birds 

 were first seen in a field on the Southorpe Mill Farm 

 on the last day of May, 1888, and again on June 1st; 

 on this latter day two of the birds were shot by a boy 

 in the employ of the occupier of the farm, the others 

 were not seen again." The writer subsequently sent 

 me the wings of one of these victims. My deeply- 

 lamented friend and former neighbour at A¥adenhoe, 

 Mr. G. E. Hunt, called at Lilford on the evening of 

 July 29, 1888, and reported having just seen a 

 solitary Sand-Grouse in the meadow below Wadenhoe 

 House. This bird passed within fifteen yards of my 

 informant, flying comparatively slowly, and appeared 

 to have its feet clogged with clay ; it " chuckled " 

 loudly as it passed my informant. On July 31st 

 three birds, that, from the descriptions given to me, 

 can only have been Sand-Grouse, were seen flying 

 over the park at Lilford by one of our gamekeepers, 

 and later, on the same clay, by Mr. Hunt's keeper 

 near Wadenhoe. On August 15 1 was assured by 

 Mr. W. Edwards, who has a fair acquaintance with 

 British birds, that he had that morning seen three 

 Sand-Grouse between Achurch and Thorpe Water- 

 ville. Mr. C. F. Dyer, formerly of Irthlingborough, 

 informed me, by letter, that whilst out Partridge- 

 shooting with some friends in that neighbourhood, on 

 September 7th, 1888, he twice flushed and distinctly 



