SYRRHAPTES PARADOX
Pallas’s Sandgrouse.
Tetrao paradoxa, Pall. Itin., tom. ii. p. 712, tab. F .; Id. Zool. Ross.-Asiat., tom. ii. p. 7
paradoxus, Lath. Ind. Om., vol. ii. p. 643.
. Syrrhaptes paradoxus, 111. Prod. Syst. Mamm. et Av.f p. 243.
— Pallasii, Temm. Hist. Nat. des Pig. et Gall., tom. iii. pp. 282 et 716.
HeterocUtus Tataricus, VieilL
Syrrhaptes heteroclita, VieilL Gal. des Ois., tom. ii. p. 64, pi. 222.
iatic bird, of whose history we have hitherto known but little, and which, n»ri
e representative of its genus, should have suddenly made its appearance in rm
mtinent, and in almost every district of the British Islands, is so remarkable that
be regarded as a phenomenon. This unwonted exodus o f a species from its n
tost strange eveuts that has happened within the memory o f naturalists; and no i
we are now tolerably well ac
f p f the birds which roam o
le sun, the great luminary \
o f the American Weed (Anackaris Canadensis),
o f our island. Other instances o f Asiatic b
these visits have been few and far between,
$«nds>rouse, on the other hand, has arrived i
its first appearance in 1859, it has beet
eight to ten in number, or in packs o f from f
June 15, 1863, he states that he had ju
tw>wbiK>d ; and on the 27th of the same month
HciHy Islands. In the ‘ John o’ Groat’s Journa
k Caithness, out o f a flock of eight. I mentio
ii-irv to show that the immigration was by no
><.*■ «wttrrence in the intermediate d istricts; Mi
no less than sixty-three examph
; 23rd
On the Continent
greater «thutulanci
trkli his wonted
*' This very bea
w e l t e r being vei
Jnae this bird ws
in ^B c e s even to
exceptions, all vei
perfect plmnage.
14 Alter the laps
o f whtefe five were
iresh said tidy ap
rx riin kw , they sti
van. the finest invariably brought
Mr, Alfred
;ed; for we have determined with accuracy
r planet, and we know that this movement
influences creatiou in all her varied forms,
iputably apparent to our senses. But we can no more
into Western Europe than we can for the appearance
v so widely spread over the rivers and water-courses
visiting this country have, it is true, occurred; but
1 generally consisted of solitary wanderers. Pallas’s
tmbers at a time, and for several years in succession,
adiiy arriving, either in pairs, little companies of from
o a hundred. In a letter from Mr. Rodd of Penzance,
ceived a Sandgrouse which had been shot in the neigh-
informs me that a specimen was picked up dead on the
or the 11 th of July is a notice of one having been shot
e occurrence o f the bird at these extreme points of the
is a contracted one. I might fill pages with a record of
evenson, in a paper published by him in the ‘ Zoologist,’
ive been killed in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk,
and the 9th of June 1863; and many others have been killed on each side of
ley Marsh on the south to Scarborough and Hartlepool on the north-east. It has
n the north-west o f Ireland, and on the Walney Island, off the Lancashire coast,
occurred in all the northern parts, from Holland to Norway; but nowhere in
i that bouse-of-call for strange birds, the Island of Heligoland, where M. Gatke,
spec He states, in a letter the • Field ’ of
i obs<
old
specimens coming nrst, an
ight up by weak, badly develope
Newton informs me that the bi:
ggs have already been found th
is new comer; for it is eviden
rved and shot here first on the 21st May, the
All successive days up to the earlier part of
three, five, fifteen, to fifty, and in one or two
re been shot—the earlier birds being, with two
dl female birds—every one o f them in the most
rain six Sandgrouse made their appearance, out
females, whose plumage had no longer the same
that all through this abnormal and mysterious
n their migrations, that is, the males formed the
females make their appearance, the rear being
ndividuals, o f a shabby appearance.”
breeding on the Danish Islands, and chat six or
curastance tends greatly to increase the interest