260 tLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY 



I. PALLAS'S SAND-GROUSE. SYRRHAPTES PARADOXUS. 



Tetrao paradoxa, Pall. Reis. Russ. Reichs. ii. App. p. 712 



(1773)- .. , ^„ 



Syrrhaptes paradoxus, Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 75, pi. 408 

 (1876); B.O.U. List. Brit. B. p. 140 (1883); Saunders, 

 ed. Yarrell's Brit. B. iii. p. 31 (1883); Seebohm, Hist. 

 Brit. B. ii. p. 419 (1884); Saunders, Man. Brit. B. p. 475 

 (1889); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xvii. (1891) ; Ogilvie 

 Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 2 (1893) ; id. in Allen's 

 Nat. Libr. ix. p. 3, pi. i. (1895). 



Adult Male. — General colour above pale sandy buff; across 

 the breast a band of white, each feather having a black sub- 

 terminal cross-bar ; throat rusty-red, not margined by a black 

 line ; no black spots on the side of the neck ; on the abdomen 

 a large black patch. Total length, 14-6 inches; wing, 9-1; 

 tail, 7-0 ; tarsus, 0*8 (Grant, Lc), 



Adult Female. — Differs from the male in having the sides of 

 the neck spotted with black ; the band across the breast is 

 wanting, and a black line bands the pale buff throat. Total 

 length, 12-8 inches ; wing, 8*0 ; tail, 5-5 ; tarsus, o'S (Grant, lc). 



Nestling. — Covered with beautifully patterned down, each 

 plume of the body being distinct and almost scale-like in ap- 

 pearance, quite different from the fluffy down of young Game- 

 Birds. The general colour is pale buff, with patches of sienna 

 and brown arranged in pairs on the sides of the head and the 

 upper parts of the body. These patches are mostly margined 

 and connected by irregular dotted black lines (Newton, Ibis, 

 1890, p. 210, pi. vii.) 



Range in Great Britain. — Pallas's Sand- Grouse only appears at 

 certain intervals, when a great irruption into Western Europe 

 takes place. Thus in 1863, and again in 1888, large numbers 

 visited Britain and even bred here. Notwithstanding the pro- 

 tection afforded them by intelligent land-owners, the birds 

 vanished by degrees, and probably migrated eastwards, back to 

 their home in the Kirghis Steppes. 



Range outside the Eritisli Islands. — The home of Pallas's 

 Sand-Grouse is in the Kirghis Steppes, whence it extends to 



