British Islands ; and, when writing in 1864, Professor
Newton considered that the total eould be set down as under
700; an estimate which is probably a very moderate one,
especially when : the number of birds taken and eaten in
France is considered.
In 1872 a small flock of Sand-grouse were reported to
have frequented the coasts of Northumberland, opposite the
Fern Islands, from the end of May to 6th June ; but a bird
which was at first stated to have been shot, proved, on
enquiry,1 to have gûfaway.* On 25th and 29th June four
birds of this species were describe_d as having been seen
near Girvan, Ayrshire;! but there is naeonfirmafory record
of similar occurrences-In other parts of the British Islands
or on the Continent.
On 4th May, 1876, a solitary example,, obtained&n$ar
Modena, in Italy; might have been expected- to-prove the
precursor ofanother invasion ; but no further arrivals either
on the Continent or in Britain appear to have been|@horded
until', on' the '4th of October of that' same year, a male and
female were shot near Kilcock/co. Kildare, Ireland ; a notice
both of the occurrence and of-the places where the specimens
might be inspected,' being -published in ? The Field1'-of 14th
October, by Mr. "WV N§> Coates. - --Witte -thèse 'ü e I
list of visitants closes for the present.^
Essentially a native of-’the Asiatic steppe's, dhisi^pèeies
was first made-known to^Pallas-as an inhabitant’of‘those
Kirghiz plains'whose ^westers'boundary is tha Caspian Sea. I
A straggler across, the political frontier--between Asia and
'Europe,reached Sarepfa on the Lower-Volga in" the winter
of 1848, and, coming under- tha-anotice, of- the Moravian
settlement there;-Herr Moschler'enrolled this species? in his I
I list in- 1853 as a .very rare-European bird. -It Is probable
[that our visitors' came from this western extremitpoKtheir I range; Henke, (Ibis*1882^ p. 220> saysdhat Sand-grouse
are -occasionally found near Astrakhan-in winter-; and in
1876 great numbers bred on the Kirghiz-steppes, wherethe
* y Hancock, N. H. Tr. Northum. aid 'Durham, f f r f /8 7 u
t R, Gray, Ibis; 187% Ê* § &
nomads told him that they had not previously observed
them. Eastwards, Pallas’s Sand-grouse is found throughout
the sandy wastes of Turkestan to Samarcand -.throughout
the Kirghiz steppes to Lake Balkash; in the deserts at. the
foot of the Tian Shan range; and in both the .steppes and
the deserts of Mongolia, and in the basin of the Tarei-nor.
Colonel Prjevalsky * states that in summer it. goes, north
even beyond the shores of Lake;Baikal,where it breeds;
spending the winter in those parts of the Gobi Desert which
are free from snow, and in Ala-shan, where ib is duet'with
from October onwards in flocks of several thousands. Some
winter in the Hoang-ho Valley iipSoutKeast Mongolia, and
during severe weather the plains between. lien-sin and Pekin
and of the Pechili are covered with thenv; the natives, who
call them “ Sha-chee,” taking numbers of them with nets.t
Southwards, thisrspecies extends toiKpko-nor and Tsaidam,
but it does not ascend to Kansu or:Kor%ern. Thibet, being
there replaced by the only -other known species of .the genus,
Syrrhaptes thibetanm,wn. inhabitants much greater altitudes.
. These enormous flocks feed largely on the seeds of Agno*
phyllum gobicum, so that the number of wintering, birds
depends on the supply of -that food;Sthough they occasionally
feed on other seeds and hemes. In the crops of some
of those killed in Norfolk only the seeds of plants .proper to
the sandy coast were found-, without .any.-trace of animal or
mixed food; the - gizzards containing an enormous quantify
o f small stones and sand. They drink,several,times a day;
preferring fresh to brackish water. : - ** ■"'
Most observers agree in describing the. flight -of this Sand-
grouse as much resembl-ingun’its style ancLrapidity that pf
-the Golden Plover* • Prj evalsky" say-s that when a large, flock
4s on the wing, the noise is like tha sighing of the wind and
can be heard at a considerable distance. ,.Jn the air the male
birds utter a peculiar note; like 4e jbmck-tu/ruk, trwck-tumk, ,
especially when in small flocks.
Prjevalsky states.that -the complement of eggs.-is three,
which is thp usual number with..other Sand-grouse. In the
* In Rowley’s Miscellany, pt.-ix.'p. 382, - f Swinl^e, Ibis, P> 344* f