8724 



Birds. 



me every facility of visiting his museum and watching- this most interesting little 

 stranger. At some future time I may send to the ' Zoologist ' some further notes 

 thereon. — S. P. Saville ; Dover House, Cambridge, August 11, 1863. 



Pallas' Sand Grouse in Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire and Cambridgeshire. — 

 In addition to the captures of this grouse recorded in the August number of the 

 'Zoologist' the following have come under my observation. One shot near Penriih, 

 several near Lancaster on Morecambe Bay, one at Whitby, one at Bridlington, thirteen 

 on the north-east coast of Lincolnshire, near Louth and Alford, one or two near Peter- 

 borough, eight near Cambridge, and five specimens were offered for sale to a game 

 dealer in York and refused by him, but when shot or what became of them I have not 

 been able to ascertain. As I have not seen any in the flesh I can add but little infor- 

 mation to what is already recorded. I believe the numbers of the sexes have been 

 nearly equal, though not always equally distributed. The crops of several that were 

 examined contained small black seeds, and the ovaries of the females contained eggs 

 in various stages of development. All were obtained from the last week in May to 

 the end of June.— T. H. Allis ; York, August 5, 1863. 



Pallas' Sand Grouse in the East Riding of Yorkshire. — I added to my collection 

 the other day a fine male specimen of Pallas' sand grouse in very perfect plumage. 

 It was shot by a labouring man, in the first week of June, at North Burton, a village 

 situated near Bridlington, in the East Riding. This bird was accompanied by another, 

 probably a female. The man who shot it stated thai " it was making a great noise at 

 the lime." No other specimen that I am aware of has occurred so near Beverley, 

 although several have been seen, and a few captured, in the neighbourhood both of 

 Scarborough and Whitby. — W. W. Boulton ; Beverley, August 4, 1863. 



The Sand Grouse at Heligoland. — This very beautiful and interesting stranger 

 was first observed and shot here on the 2 1 st of May, the weather being very fine, with 

 a moderate easterly breeze. Each successive day, up to the earlier part of June, it 

 was seen here in flocks varying from about three, five, fifteen to fifty, and in one or 

 two instances even to a hundred. Out of these nearly thirty have been shot; the earlier 

 birds being, with two exceptions, all very fine male specimens, the later nearly all 

 female birds — every one of them in the most perfect plumage. After a lapse of a fort- 

 night, viz., on the 22nd of June, six sand grouse again made their appearance: out of 

 these five were shot — all female birds — whose plumage no longer had that fresh and tidy 

 appearance of the earlier instances; so that all through this abnormal and mysterious 

 excursion of this species they still adhered to the rules of birds on a regular spring 

 migration — that is, the males forming the van, the finest old specimens coming first, 

 after which the females make their appearance, and the rear being invariably brought 

 up by weak, badly-developed or injured individuals of a shabby appearance. I was 

 so fortunate as to obtain two living specimens of this sand grouse, a male and a female, 

 both of which for awhile went on very well ; but yesterday, to my great regret, I dis- 

 covered that the female had died. The abdomen of this bird had the appearance as 

 if containing a developed egg, which on examination, however, proved to be a solid 

 accumulation of a gritty calcareous substance of the size of a large walnut. It would 

 be very interesting if these birds were to breed on the English moors. Although I 

 have little doubt that, if at convenient localities they are left undisturbed, such will 

 be the result, it also is my opinion that in autumn the offspring, together with the 

 parent birds, will depart for their original fatherland never to return. But a future 

 different result would perhaps be attained if such young birds were to be procured 



