188 Mr. A. Newton on the Irruption of 



lived a good many months. One bird has even laid several eggs, 

 one of which I had the pleasure of exhibiting at the Society^s 

 Meeting on the 10th December following (P. Z. S. 1861, p. 397, 

 pi. 39. fig. 1). A few, however, died, and Mr. W. K. Parker has 

 been thereby enabled to make a careful examination of their 

 osteology, the results of which examination, judging from the 

 abstract of them which has already appeared (P. Z. S. 1862, 

 pp. 253-260), we await with the highest interest. Other zoo- 

 logical gardens in Europe, also, have largely benefited by our 

 fortunate acquisitions. 



Before coming to treat actually of the late irruption, I must 

 quote from the important work, published in 1861, of Gustav 

 Radde *, a traveller who, as before mentioned in this Journal 

 (' Ibis,' 1859, p. 204, and 1862, p. 382), has had great oppor- 

 tunities of observing the habits of Syrrhaptes paradoxus towards 

 the more eastern limits of its breeding-range, and who gives a 

 much fuller account of its peculiarities than does M. Delanoue in 

 the passage to which I have above referred. 



Herr Radde passed the spring of 1856 in the basin of the 

 Tarei-nor, a lake situated in Dauria, about 50° N. and 116°E. 

 (from Greenwich). He remarks particularly on the favourable- 

 ness of the district for migratory birds, among which Syrrhaptes 

 is one of the earliest to appear, ari'iving (already paired, though 

 keeping in flocks) on the 10th (22nd) March. Three days after- 

 wards, when the winter's snow was yet lying on the hillocks 

 of the high steppes, he describes it as still living in small 

 societies (but always paired) on the adjacent salt-plains, from 

 which it used to resort early in the morning to the fresh-water 

 springs of the Tarei to drink. There these flocks would remain 

 until about nine o'clock in the day, and then repair to the white 

 salt-pans, among which are some slight elevations covered with 

 grass. On these they scrape shallow pits, and sit therein, pass- 

 ing the rest of the day in quiet, some sleeping, while others 

 walk about and pluck the young shoots of Salicornia, unless they 



* ' Berichte iiber Reisen in Siiden von Ost-Sibirien.' St. Petersburg, 

 1861 . The passages from which I quote are to be found between pages 373 

 and 417. The book is one altogether most interesting to a naturalist, and 

 an English translation of it would be very desirable. 



