OBSERVED IN HERTFORDSHIRE IN 1888 . 
141 
in Germany presented to public museums, and in Britain retained 
in the collections of private individuals. In the counties of Norfolk 
and Suffolk alone 86 are recorded to have been shot. Although 
not registered by Mr. Littleboy, Hertfordshire is one of the counties 
these birds visited, and in which consequently they were killed. 
In June two were shot at Dugdale Hill,* South Mimms, and nine 
on Therfield Heath, Royston, and its vicinity.f They first appeared 
in Europe on the 6th of May, and first in England on the 21st, and 
the records of their destruction continue through every subsequent 
month in the year and even into 1864, the last bird having been 
seen, and shot, early in February. Several flocks attempted to 
locate themselves on sandy tracts similar to those they frequent in 
their native country, they seemed to find suitable food, and some 
birds even deposited their eggs. Had they been unmolested and 
allowed to nest it seems possible that they might have permanently 
.established themselves with us, and might have become a valuable 
addition to our game-birds; but every bird that came within the 
reach of a gun appears to have been mercilessly shot. Erom 150 
to 200, however, are believed to have escaped destruction, having 
been seen in the island of Riigen on the 3rd of October, flying from 
N.W. to S.E., apparently returning to their native haunts, where 
they are free from molestation. 
Is it possible that the warm reception these birds met with in 
our hospitable country, and others in Western Europe, could ac¬ 
count for the long time that elapsed before any considerable number 
of their species again ventured to pay us a visit? We know that 
the lower animals can communicate certain information to each 
other, and that birds do so by voice and gesture, but we do not 
know to what extent, and whether or not it is possible for a bird 
to warn others against pursuing a certain track we cannot say. 
Erom the great irruption of 1863 to that of 1888, an interval of 
a quarter of a century, only a few stragglers have been seen in 
Western Europe. Erom February, 1864, to May, 1888, the only 
records I can find are the following:—One shot near Tamworth in 
1866 ; two killed on the Faroe Islands in June, 1868 ; a flock seen 
in Northumberland early in June, 1872; two killed in Scotland 
late in the same month; a flock of from fifteen to twenty seen at 
Winterton in Norfolk on or about 21st May, 1876 ; one killed near 
Modena in Italy in June; and two (a pair, i.e. male and female 
together) shot in Ireland in October of the same year. It seems 
probable that some of the earlier of these may have been birds 
which escaped being slaughtered in 1863-64. 
We now come to the second great invasion of the British Islands 
and other countries of Western Europe by Syrrhaptes. At least 
twice as many birds must have visited us in 1888 as in 1863, 
probably more than three times as many, but it is very difficult to 
eliminate duplicate observations of a bird of such rapid flight as 
* This locality is in Middlesex, but it is surrounded, except for a short distance 
on the south-east, by Hertfordshire. 
f ‘ Zoologist,’ vol. xxi, pp. 8685 and 8723. 
