196 CORDEAUX : PALLAS' SAND-GROUSE. 



the scalp partly separated from the skull, probably having come in 

 contact with the coast telegraph-wire, fallen into the sea, and sub- 

 sequently washed up by the tide. 



The number of Sand-Grouse actually arriving at the Spurn may 

 be estimated at about seventy, but I admit this may be considerably 

 below the mark ; when flights are seen in so many places it is 

 impossible to give more than an approximate estimate of their 

 number. 



Two which I saw in the flesh, said to have been shot by a farmer 

 at Easington, on the 26th, were both males. One of these had the 

 lateral or outside rectrices the natural length, but the intermediate 

 feathers were only about one-half the length, and without any trace 

 of the two long filamentous ends. 



These Sand-Grouse flew very straight and direct, and with extra- 

 ordinary velocity. Their long sharply-pointed wings and tail are 

 suggestive of rapid dashing flight, and the whole contour of the bird 

 seen on the wing seems a model of grace and restless activity. Their 

 small daintily-shaped head and dark-hazel eye are also very pleasing 

 features. In flight, with a bright sunlight, they have quite a pink or 

 rosy appearance, and the dark markings, or belt, on the abdomen 

 and flank may be seen at a great distance. Their flight has been 

 compared to that of the golden plover, but it struck me as more 

 resembling that of driven grouse when in full swing. The four birds 

 which, on the 26th, rose from the sand-hills, flew high and with great 

 rapidity out to sea in a straight line for more than a mile ; then, with 

 the glass, I saw them make an immense circuit, apparently shaping 

 their course for the Point, two miles away to the south. The second 

 lot of four rose suddenly beyond a bank of tide-tossed sea-weed, and 

 flew directly out to sea, till they became invisible in the extreme 

 distance. 



I found places in the sand-hills where flocks had evidently been 

 basking or dusting like partridges. All round were the rat-like 

 paddings of their small flat feet, and numerous holes scratched or 

 excavated in the loose sand, sufficiently deep to hold the whole of 

 their body. As a man remarked, who had flushed them, they 

 appeared to rise out of the sand, and not from the surface. Another 

 said, 'they came from holes in the sand like rats.' 



The crop of one from Spurn on the 19th was crammed with 

 wheat and linseed, washed to shore in the last winter from a wreck 

 near Hornsea. The gizzard of another, shot near Patrington on the 

 2 1 St, I found filled with numerous small, dark, flinty fragments and 

 turnip seed. The crops and gizzards of three males shot on the 26th 

 contained a large amount of small agricultural seeds, as red and white 



Naturalist, 



