Birds. 



8687 



towards the south, along shore, and yesterday twenty were seen near Thorpe. — 

 N. Fmwick Hele; Aldeburgh, June 14, 1863.— 'Field. 1 



Pallas' Sand Grouse in Norfolk. — To your already long list of notices of the 

 appearance of Syrrhaptes paradoxus in various counties in England, I am now able 

 to add the record of some twenty-six specimens having been obtained in Norfolk 

 between the 4th and llth of this month. I have only time this week to give you a 

 brief notice of their occurrence, but hope by your next publication to forward more 

 detailed particulars, having had the pleasure of inspecting fifteen birds, six males 

 and nine females. On the 4th of June a flock of eight or nine was observed in a 

 grass field at Wraxham, about fourteen miles from Yarmouth, and four were shot, 

 three females and one male. On the 8th a male bird was killed on the Denes at 

 Yarmouth, and two others were seen at the same time. On the following day (the 

 9th) a large flock of about forty was flushed once or twice on the beach at Horsey, 

 near Yarmouth, returning each time to the same spot, a sort of hollow in the sands. 

 From this number no less than fifteen were shot the next morning and evening (10th), 

 and on the llth two more, and five or six others were seen ; and I have seen another 

 pair from near Hunstanton, obtained on the 10th. In all cases these grouse have 

 been found either on the sea-shore or in grass fields immediately in the vicinity of the 

 coast. The birds are in fine condition, their crops filled with grass-seed, sand and 

 minute pebbles ; and the stomach, a true gizzard, is particularly hard and muscular. 

 H. Stevenson ; Norwich. — '"Field.' 



Pallas Sand Grouse in Nottinghamshire. — On Tuesday, the 2nd of June, Mr. 

 T. Jackson, Allamoor Farm, near Farnsfield, Notts, on crossing a clover seed field, 

 noticed four peculiarly strange-looking birds. They allowed him to approach within 

 forty yards of them, and having his gun with him he fired and killed a brace, male 

 and female, and they answer exactly to the description given of them by Mr. E. J. 

 Schollick in the 'Times.' They are in the hands of a naturalist for preservation. The weight 

 of the male bird was eight ounces, and the female ten ounces. The eggs in the ovarium 

 of the latter were about the size of small peas. They have been feeding on two or three 

 varieties of grass seeds and the leaf of clover. The hen bird was mouthed by a dog, 

 and her tail was minus the forked feathers. — Southwell, Nottinghamshire. — ' Field 1 



Pallas' Sand Grouse in Lincolnshire. — Some very rare and scarce birds have, unfor- 

 tunately, been shot on this coast a few miles north of this place ; I say " unfortunately" 

 shot, for had they been left alone they might have multiplied. I see that mention is 

 made of the sand grouse in the * Field' of the 30th of May, and from that description 

 they are of the same kind. They are now at a taxidermist's in this town, and I have 

 compared them with Jardine's ' Ornithology,' and have no doubt they are Pallas' sand 

 grouse. — C. G. Holland; Boston. — 'Field. 1 



Pallas' Sand Grouse in Lancashire. — A covey (about fourteen) of that very rare 

 bird, described by Sir William Jardine as Pallas' sand grouse, was seen yesterday in 

 the Isle of Walney. My informant, who had just shot a beautiful brace,— a cock and 

 a hen, — told me they were very tame, and allowed him to approach quite near to them 

 while feeding in a field of corn, when they rose with a peculiar cry, but did not fly far. 

 The bird is about the size of the golden plover, the cock much smaller than the hen ; 

 plumage of a brownish yellow colour, spotted and pencilled with black and dark brown. 

 The tips of the wings are adorned with a dark-coloured long pointed feather, and the 

 tail has two similar ones, giving the bird the appearance, when standing at a little 

 distance, of having two long forked tails. The legs and feet are covered with thick 



