160 EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



Zoological Society on May 6th, 1890. The species has occurred 

 before accidentally in Europe, but its native home is India 

 and China. 



THE AMERICAN PASSENGER PIGEON. 



(Ectopistes mig ra to ri us.) 



Plate 47, Fig. 11. 



At least five of this wandering species have been shot in 

 England. Great numbers, however, of the Passenger Pigeon 

 have been turned loose in Great Britain. The home of the 

 species is in North America, as far north as 65° N. lat. The 

 eggs are white, and, according to Eidgway, measure about 1"47 

 inch in length to 1'02 in breadth. 



FAMILY PTEROCLIDM, 



OB SAND GROUSE. 



PALLAS'S SAND GKOUSE. 

 (Syrrhaptes paradoxus.) 



Plate 47, Figs. 10, 12. 



Pallas's Sand Grouse visits Great Britain at long intervals, but 

 occasionally in large numbers. Such visitations took place in 

 1859, 1863, 1872, 1876 and 1888. The true home of Pallas's 

 Sand Grouse is in the steppes of Central Asia. It breeds in 

 North-east Turkestan, Mongolia and Dauria. 



Radde found eggs in the middle of April, and saw young birds 

 in the middle of May. The birds make no nest, but merely 

 scratch a shallow hollow, about five inches across, in the salt- 

 impregnated soil, though in some cases a little grass or a few 

 sprigs of a saline plant are placed round the margin. 



Three is the usual number of eggs, though it is said that four 

 are occasionally found. They are remarkably elongated in shape 

 and are scarcely at all pyriform, in this respect resembling the 

 eggs of the Pigeons. In their colour, which is strictly protec- 

 tive, they resemble much more the eggs of the Plovers, especially 



