318 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



kindly called my attention to an unrecorded specimen, which he 

 has examined, in the possession of Mrs. Dawson Kowley of 

 Brighton. Mr. G-urney says that this bird, which is a female, 

 was shot by Mr. Jackson of St. Bees in April 1863. If the 

 month be correctly reported, this Sand Grouse was the first to 

 be obtained in England that year, but the earliest public 

 announcement that this species had reached England appeared 

 in the Times newspaper of May 26, reprinted in the Zoologist. 

 It was Mr. E. J. Schollick who reported that a covey of fourteen 

 birds had been seen on Walney Island, and that two birds had 

 been shot. The birds are described as having been very tame, 

 allowing the man who shot the specimens to approach quite 

 near while they fed in a field of corn. A fine male Sand 

 Grouse was killed near Penrith in May or June, and stuffed by 

 the elder Hope, who says that it was very hard shot. A female 

 bird was shot near Silloth by a man named Lightfoot, who sub- 

 sequently narrated to me all the facts concerning its capture. 

 Routledge of Silloth remembers the occurrence likewise, and 

 assures me that a second bird was seen at the same time. 

 Lightfoot's bird was skinned by the late James Fell, who was 

 fond of discussing with me the circumstances under which it had 

 strayed to Cumberland. We little thought a few years ago that 

 Professor Newton's prediction of the return of this Sand Grouse 

 to Western Europe would receive so remarkable a fulfilment. 

 When the great irruption took place in the spring of 1888, two 

 distinct flights of Sand Grouse visited Lakeland. The more 

 northern division would appear to have arrived on the east 

 coast of England between Berwick and Holy Island, striking 

 across the Bewcastle fells, and proceeding westward to the 

 southern shores of the Sol way Firth. The southern division 

 perhaps arrived at Spurn, and after following the Humber, 

 crossed North-west Lancashire, alighting on Walney Island, 

 whence they spread northward to the sand dunes of Eavenglass 

 estuary. It will perhaps facilitate matters if I state that at no 

 time, during the immigration of these birds, did any of us 

 succeed in tracing their presence in Westmorland ; although Mr. 

 W. Duckworth, on June 26, fell in with a flock of seven Sand 

 Grouse at Green Odd, within a short flight of that county. With 



