IRRUPTIONS OF SAND GROUSE 
been compared rather with that of the plover. The 
anatomy of the bird, according to Professor Huxley, is 
almost exactly intermediate between that of pigeons 
and that of the gallinaceous birds, such as grouse. The 
name sand grouse might therefore, according to that 
anatomist, profitably be altered to “ pigeon grouse,” a 
name which would stamp upon the memory the charac- 
teristics of the bird. This view, however, like most 
other views in ornithology, has undergone some altera- 
tion ; and Dr. Mitchell, the Secretary of the Zoological 
Society, rather considers the sand grouse to be nearer 
to the doves, and both of them to be allied to the plovers. 
Be this as it may, the main fact about the bird of uni- 
versal interest is the migratory instinct already referred 
to. The knowledge of this only dates from the year 
1848, when a single example was met with in Russia. 
“In 1888,” remarks Professor Alfred Newton in his 
Dictionary of Birds, “ occurred an irruption in quite 
incalculable numbers.’’ Even Parliament was moved 
to pass an Act for the protection of these immigrating 
strangers ; but, characteristically, the Act did not come 
into force until 1889, when the colonisers had already 
dwindled. In this country the birds breed, though not 
freely ; and it was found, as had been noted previously, 
that the young were hatched from the egg in down 
plumage, and were not little naked “ pipers ” like the 
young of the pigeon tribe. These chicks arise from eggs 
which are laid in shallow holes in the ground, and are 
coloured. In this the sand grouse evidently shows 
characters like those of the plover tribe rather than the 
pigeons, which lay white eggs in nests made upon trees. 
THE PEACOCK 
The peacock, the Miles gloriosus, or swaggering soldier 
of the ornithological world, belongs to the pheasant 
tribe, and, like them, shows a great difference in the 
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