THE PIN-TAILED FOUR-TOED SAND-GROUSE. 7 



commonly in considerable flocks (I have seen several hundreds 

 together) ; but in summer, at any rate, it is perhaps more com- 

 mon to meet with it in little parties of from three to twenty. 

 Whilst feeding, it trots about more raj^idly and easily than its 

 short feather-encased legs and feet would lead one to suppose, 

 individuals continually flying up and alighting a few yards 

 farther on, and now and again the whole flock rising and flying 

 round, apparently without reason or aim. 



"Sometimes it is very shy, especially in the early mornings 

 and evenings ; and though it will not, unless repeatedly fired 

 at, fly far, it will not let you approach within one hundred yards ; 

 but, as a rule, during the heat of the day, you may walk right 

 in amongst them. They are precisely the colour of the sand 

 when basking, and often the first notice you have of their 

 proximity is the sudden patter of their many wings as they rise 

 and dart away, and the babel of their cries, which, if the flock 

 be a large one, is really startling for a moment. . . . Early 

 in the morning, and quite at dusk, they come down to the 

 water to drink ; by preference to fresh water, but, as at the 

 Tso-Khar, at times to quite brackish water. 



"They are always noisy birds when moving about, uttering 

 a call something like 'guk-guk,' to my ear, or, again, as some 

 people syllable it, 'yak-yak,' 'caga-caga,'&c., &c., but they are 

 specially noisy in the evenings when they come down to drink." 



Nest. — None. 



Eggs. — Very similar to those of S. paradoxus^ but larger. 



THE PIN-TAILED FOUR-TOED SAND-GROUSE. GENUS 



PTEROCLURUS. 



Pterochirus^ Bonap. Compt. Rend. xlii. p. 880 (1856). 



Type, P. ale hat us (Linn.). 



The five members of this genus are distinguished from 

 Syrrhaptes by having the hind-toe always present, though small, 

 and only the feet feathered, the toes being naked ; from Ptcro- 



