184 PALLAS’S SAND GROUSE 
Ramsey butcher (Y. L. IZ, i. pt. ii. p. 72). Specimens 
were during the year obtained in the north and east of 
Ireland, in Cumberland, and in Lancashire. 
During the great immigration of 1888 the island received 
its share of these strange visitants. They were first 
observed in Lancashire on 20th May in that year, and 
appeared in Cumberland about the same time, or possibly 
earlier, while on 28th or 29th of the month one was shot 
in Co. Down. In close agreement with these dates, a 
flock of eight appeared at the Lhen, Andreas, on 26th May,” 
and two, a male and female, were shot. On the 28th, out 
of a flock of fifteen near Ballaskeig, Maughold, another was 
killed by Mr. Creer (Zool., 1888, p. 265). These birds 
were flushed in a turnip field. On 21st October another 
was killed at the Lhen, this time from a party of eleven, 
and on 2nd January 1889 Mr. E. Thellusson shot one near 
the Windmill, Ramsey. ‘This was seen alone at 1.30 P.M. 
It passed the Mill with a flight like that of a Golden 
Plover, and uttered a loud cry when disturbed, something 
like that of a Jay. The contents of the crop of this bird 
were sent to me, and consisted of seeds of dock and atriplex 
of different species, with vetch and mustard, and in a less 
degree polygonum, pimpernel, and gorse, only four seeds of 
grass, and a good deal of sand.’ 
Mr. Kermode, to whom we are indebted for the above 
details, states that they were again seen in June and July 
1889, in November and December 1890, when from seven 
to eleven appeared about the Lhen, and in January 1891, 
when one was shot in Maughold, being the last report of 
their appearance. 
1 In Y. LZ. M., iii. 586, Mr. Kermode says he has heard of only one specimen 
in that year (an evident slip). 
2 Soin Y. LZ. M., iii. 536, but the parallel records in Y. Z. M., i. pt. ii. p. 71, 
and Zool., 1888, p. 265, say 22nd. 
