140 
J. HOPKINSON-NOTES ON BIRDS 
oue interested in ornithology. The arrival of the sand-grouse in 
Hertfordshire was announced by Mr. Campbell in a letter which 
appeared in the 4 Times’ of 23rd May, and the two birds which were 
killed near Hoddesdon were exhibited at a conversazione of the 
Linnean Society on 25th May, exciting considerable attention and 
interest. The circumstance is mentioned by Mr. J. E. Harting, in 
the ‘ Zoologist ’ for June, 1888 (ser. 3, vol. xii, p. 234). 
These are all the records I am aware of relating to this visitation 
of Pallas’ sand-grouse to our county. 
The sand-grouse form the order Pterocletes, an order allied to the 
Columbse and Gallinse, and comprising two genera— Pterocles and 
Syrrhaptes. Ho species of Pterocles has ever been known to visit 
Britain, and of the two species of Syrrhaptes only paradoxus. Both 
the generic and specific name of Syrrhaptes paradoxus relate to the 
form of its feet,— Syrrhaptes, derived from a Greek word signifying 
to sew or stitch together, indicating that the last phalanges only of 
the toes are free, and paradoxus from another Greek word meaning 
strange, this structure of the feet being so peculiar. The species 
agrees with other sand-grouse in its general form, in its lengthened 
wings, and in the shortness of its feet, but may be at once distin¬ 
guished from all other species by the peculiarity from which it 
derives its name. 
Syrrhaptes paradoxus inhabits Central and Eastern Asia. It has 
often been mistaken at a distance for the golden plover, from the 
similarity of its flight, which is swift, direct, and elevated. Its 
food in this country has been found to consist almost entirely of 
the small seeds of several of our most troublesome weeds, the seeds 
of Polygonum aviculare (knot-grass) being particularly abundant in 
the crops of birds killed here. In China the food is chiefly millet. 
The nest is made of the down of grasses, and is placed on sand 
or amongst stones under a bush. The eggs are usually three in 
number (rarely four). The time required for incubation and for the 
growth of the young is comparatively short. The female quits her 
nest only at the last extremity. 
The first record of the occurrence of Pallas’s three-toed sand- 
grouse in Europe is in 1853, when it was stated to be very rare at 
Sarepta, on the Lower Wolga. It made its first appearance in 
Britain (and in Western Europe) in the summer of 1859. Early 
in July one was killed in Norfolk, and another, a few days later, 
in North Wales, three being seen; and a fortnight afterwards 
(23rd) a third was killed in Jutland. Early in October a fourth was 
shot, being one of a pair which had haunted sand-hills in Holland 
since July, and the last seen in that year was killed in Kent in 
November. 
Four years after this, in 1863, there was an immense irruption of 
these birds into Western Europe, the number seen being estimated 
at about 700, of which at least 500 are believed to have been killed. 
There are records of their massacre from nearly every country in 
Europe, and from nearly every county in England, and also from 
Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. In France they were mostly eaten, 
