322 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



ten birds had been marked down into a ploughed field, and 

 their propinquity obtained by a long detour ft ventre, I had 

 scarcely taken up a vantage point in a thick furze bush over- 

 looking the birds when they began to run together, and, having 

 packed on the ground, rose and abruptly departed, pausing 

 only when they had gained the shelter of the sea-beach. They 

 were marked down afresh, but the like result followed. Rising 

 sharply, at forty yards' distance, they executed a few rapid turns, 

 and pitched in the field which they had quitted previously. 

 On other occasions flocks, which had been shot at previously, 

 showed similar wariness to that just described ; but at the same 

 time it should be understood that, when in full flight, parties 

 of Sand Grouse will approach men within a few yards. Noticing 

 a distant flock apparently making for the sea, a position in 

 their probable line of flight was hastily secured, and with 

 success, for the birds shot overhead across the heath like arrows, 

 their wings beating the air audibly as they pursued their head- 

 long course. On another occasion I happened to be walking 

 beneath a bank of littoral sand-hills, when a party of Sand 

 Grouse dashed overhead, calling lustily. Away they sped 

 across the beach, over long reaches of sand, away to the edge 

 of a distant tide, and then, following the water edge for about 

 a mile, they swept westwards towards Beckfoot, but checking 

 their course before the village was reached, they rose high in 

 the air and, curving their course with one accord, travelled back 

 to Wolstey, dropping once again in a favourite field. And 

 at this point a word may be said about the flight of the Sand 

 Grouse. Putting aside all preconceived notions, it must be 

 held to bear a not inconsiderable similarity to that of the 

 Golden Plover (Charadrius pluvialis) ; yet the flight, viewed at 

 a distance, served on more than one occasion to suggest some 

 analogy with the flight of the Swift (Cypselus apus). 



The fact is that Sand Grouse are seen to the best advantage 

 when performing their graceful aerial evolutions. It was only 

 on the breezy moor, or among the long lines of sand-dunes 

 blown up on Walney Island, and at Ravenglass, that we natu- 

 ralists could enjoy to full perfection the ' beatific vision ' of a 

 flock of these birds in full cry. 



