THE ZOOLOGY OF SIBERIA. 463 



cliaracteristic birds of the liigli steppes of Eastern Asia. Herr 

 Eadde devotes to its illustration the frontispiece of his work, 

 which represents the breeding locality of the bird on the Tarei- 

 nor, besides giving the only complete account that has yet been 

 published of its habits, migrations, and nidification.* The Synhnptes 

 paradoxus winters in large flocks on the southern parts of the great 

 desert of Gobi, extending as we know from the records of English 

 observers as far southward as Pekin and Tientsin.f It migrates 

 northwards very early for the purpose of nidification, appearing by 

 the 10th of March at its breeding stations on the northern edge of 

 the steppes in small flocks composed of birds already paired. By the 

 last days of March eggs are already deposited. The nest is carelessly 

 constructed, being placed on the ground, and consisting of a slight 

 depression in the surfaces surrounded by sprouts of Salsola and 

 grasses. The young of the Syrrliaptes run as soon as hatched — thus 

 showing that the nearest affinities of this family of birds (PteroclidBB) 

 are with the GallinacccB — not with the Pigeons — to which, however, 

 they presejit several undoubted points of alliance. The eggs of this 

 bird which are figured by Eadde from specimens obtained by him on 

 the Tarei-nor, were first made known to science in 1861 from exam- 

 ples laid by birds in the Aviaries of the Zoological Society of London. J 

 They have the same general characters as those of other members of 

 the family Pteroclidse. 



Besides our five well-known European species of Grouse 

 (Tetrao and Lagopus), which are all distributed throughout Siberia 

 and North-eastern Asia reaching mostly to Japan — two other distinct 

 members of this group — so characteristic of the northern Eaunas of 

 both hemispheres — occur in Amoorland. These are the Tetrao 

 urogalloides of Middendorf, and the Tetrao falcipennis, Hartlaub. 

 The latter is persistingly referred by Eadde (and, without doubt, 

 erroneously) to the American Tetrao canadensis, although the very 

 marked diflerences which separate these two allied species have been 

 long since pointed out by Hartlaub, § and a third member of the 

 section {Tetrao franUinii) actually intervenes in range between it and 

 the true T. canadensis. Of Tetrao urogalloides of the Apfel-moun- 

 tains and its singular habits, the younger von Nordman has lately 

 published some curious details, which prove that it is by no means so 



♦ Previously published details of Herr Eadde on the same subject have been 

 given in the account of his journey* in the 23rd volume of the " Beitriige zur 

 Kcnntniss der Russischen Keiches," p. 415. 



t Sec P. Z. S. 1861, p. 196. % See P. Z. S. 1861, p. 593, pi. xxxix., fig. U 



§ Journ. f Orn, 1855, p. 39. 



