PTEROCLIDAE—SAND-GROUSE.
217
During the invasion of 1888-89, many more specimens were seen and obtained
than had been the case on the previous occasion, no less than about eighty
individual birds being either observed or taken. One of the earliest Essex
observations in this year was that of Mr. Edward Catchpool, of Feering Bury,
who observed a covey of twelve or thirteen in a field of young mangold at
Ardleigh, on May 30th (29. June 2). Mr. Fitch records (50. ii. 271) that nine
specimens were observed on Foulness Island either on May 28th or June 4th., Mr.
Ernest Smith, of the Limes, Southminster, saw seven on the island, on Shelford
Farm, on the 30th of the latter month, and some were still there as late as Sep-
tember 8th. On June 15th, Mr. Fitch specially visited Mersea Island in order to
enquire whether any had been seen there, but without result. Mr. Crouch
records (29. June 9) that on June 4th, 1888, a covey of about sixteen birds was
observed on St. Swithin's Farm, Barkingside. On being disturbed they went
away in an easterly direction. Two of them which were subsequently shot proved
to be adult males. Towards the end of May, a flock of five was seen near
Harwich (40. xii. 264), and Mr. Kerry informs me that on June 23rd he saw,
near Harwich, a flock of fifteen or sixteen birds which he believes to have been
of this species. Mr. A. F. Gates, of Stratford (40. xii. 264), observed about a
dozen in a ploughed field near Blake Hall Station on June 10th. Lieut.-Col.
Marsden, of Colchester, saw a couple shot by a gamekeeper on Mr. Blanchard's estate,
near Walton-on-the-Naze, on Oct. 18th, 1888, when two others were seen but not
shot. The crops of the two that were obtained were full of corn. They were
preserved at Colchester for a Col. Davis, who has the shooting on the estate. Mr.
Pettitt preserved one shot at Fingringhoe Hall on Feb. 4th, 1889, and saw
another (a male) killed at New Bridge Mill, near Colchester, by a Mr. Argent
about Nov., 1888. During the summer Mr. Travis of Saffron Walden received
for preservation no less than thirteen ; but, strangely enough, not one of these
was shot in Essex, though five or six of them were killed at either Whittlesford or
Duxford, both of which places are in Cambridgeshire, though very close to the
Essex border. Mr. Travis was, however, assured by the bailiff on one of Lord
Braybrooke's farms near Audley End, that he had seen a flock of a dozen there.
Mr. Walter Crouch communicates the interesting fact that some specimens
still survived in the county during the summer of 1889. He writes:—
" On July 19th about a dozen passed over St. Swithin's Farm, Barkingside, close
by the homestead, and not 100 yards from the spot where the cove}' of sixteen
alighted on June 4th, 1888. They were flying over a field of wheat in a southerly
direction, and very low. They were seen by the tenant, Mr. Bolton, and several
others, who had not only seen the live birds last year, but also the two specimens
which were then shot. * * * They were again seen close by the stack -yard on
Aug. 10th by Mr. Hatton and another, and I have since learned that a covey of
about twelve were seen early in July about three and a half miles away, near
Lawn Farm, Fairlop Plain."