i08 Mr. T. J. Moore on 



Linnseus included the Sand-Grouse known to him along with 

 the true Grouse in his genus Tetrao. In 1809 Teinminck pro- 

 posed to separate them, and established the. genus Pterocles for 

 their reception. In 1811 Illiger proposed to separate from 

 these again the bird discovered by Pallas, in a genus which he 

 named Syrrhaptes. Other generic and specific names have since 

 been proposed ; but the bird is now generally referred to as 

 Syrrhaptes paradoxus. 



Unfortunately very little is known of the habits of the Sj/r- 

 rhaptes. M. Delanoue, in the ' Dictionnaire Classique d'Histoire 

 Naturelle/ vol. viii. p. 182, describes their walk as slow and 

 laboured ; their flight as rapid, direct and elevated, and but 

 little sustained. " The nest is composed of the down of grasses 

 placed among sand and stones under a bush. The eggs are 

 four in number, of a reddish-white colour, spotted with brown. 

 The female quits her nest only at the last extremity. The 

 Khirghiz call these birds Buldruk, and the Russians Sadscha." 



Dr. Edward Eversmann, in the first volume of Cabanis's 

 * Journal fiir Ornithologie,' tells us that this St/n-haptes " in- 

 habits only the steppes eastwards of the Caspian Sea as far as 

 the Soongarei. In the west it never passes further to the 

 north than lat. 46° But eastwards it ranges into higher lati- 

 tudes, being found also on the high steppes of the Southern 

 Altai Mountains, on the upper course of the Tschuja, in the 

 neighbourhood of the Chinese outposts. The Mongols there 

 call it Nukturu; the Dwojedanzes, Altin; the Kirghiz Tartars on 

 the Aral Sea, Buldruk." Eichwald, in his ' Fauna Caspio-Cauca- 

 sica,' merely alludes to the presence of this bird on the eastern 

 side of the Caspian Sea. 



The only localities which have come under my notice whence 

 the species has been obtained, are the following : — The Kirghiz 

 Steppe, whence Pallas's specimen* and a male and female in the 

 Derby Collection were procured, the Gobi Steppe, and Bucharia. 



* Pallas says, " In arenosis deserti Kirgisici circa arenas Dshidel-mamut, 

 aRytschkofio vivse adlatae, exuviae rectricibus carehunt ; neqiie praeterea a 

 quopiatt. nostromm obseivata fiiit haec avis curiosissima, quain Kirgiso- 

 tartari jmlverisatam contra insaniam commendant." — Zoograph. ii. p. 75. 

 —Ed. 



