Pallas' s Sand-Grouse in 1863. 189 



are disturbed by a Falcon, when they instantly take wing, and, 

 after several ringing flights, make off, alarming as they go 

 their nearest comrades, who follow their example, until the air is 

 filled with countless small flocks. But just as quickly as their 

 quiet is disturbed, so is it again restored. They begin to descend, 

 at first timidly, and then settle down on the elevations, keeping 

 so still that, owing to the colour of their plumage, they are hardly 

 remarked. On the 30th April (12th May) the first young are 

 hatched, and by the 15th (27th) May the second brood of eggs 

 were laid. 



Herr Radde goes on to say that at the end of May (or, ac- 

 cording to our reckoning, about the second week in June) he 

 made an excursion to the island of the Tarei, passing over a 

 high steppe, in the course of which he met with numerous bands 

 of Syrrhaptes. There were two great flocks, each consisting of 

 at least a thousand birds ; but they were so shy, that neither 

 on horseback nor by stalking could he approach them. After 

 being many times disturbed, they betook themselves, flying 

 with no small noise, to the bank of the Tarei, and eastwards 

 over the high steppe, alighting on two places where herds of 

 cattle had been folded in the wintei*, and consequently covered 

 with a thick layer of dung, trodden so hard that no vegetation 

 appeared through it. Here they settled themselves closely, and 

 as night came on he left them, making sure of finding them 

 next day. But in the morning they had vanished without 

 leaving a trace, and throughout the whole course of the summer 

 in that district he never again met with one bird. The herds- 

 men assured him they would return again ; but in this he was 

 disappointed, and it was only in October, in another locality, 

 near Abagaitui, that he once more saw them. They were then 

 flying in skeins {Kettenzuge), like Plovers, high and rapidly 

 towards the north. Rightly enough may Herr Radde remark 

 that " the peculiar build of this bird corresponds with singular 

 habits, and that the characteristic 'paradoxus' holds as well for 

 the first as for the last.^^ I may conclude this portion of mv 

 paper by saying that the Cossacks, who accompany the caravans 

 to Pekin across the Gobi, told him that Syrrhaptes also inhabits 

 those plains in great numbers, and serves them for game on 



