60 
Tab. F. 1773), and made some shrewd remarks upon the new 
species, which he referred to the genus Tetrao. He remarks :— 
‘Avis inter Lagopodes et Otides ambigua, multisque momentis 
anomala et a norma solita aliena.” Attention is called to the 
curious feet: “Pedes maxime insoliti fere usque ad ungues plumosi, 
breviculi, tridactyli, digitis brevissimis, coalitis, solo apice ungui- 
busque distinctis; unde planta triloba, latiuscula, papillis corneis 
imbricata.” He concludes: “Habitat in deserto Tartarico austra- 
liore, unde adlatum specimen farctum transmisit nobil Nicol 
Rytschkof.” Our countryman Latham, following Pallas, conferred 
on the species the title of ‘‘ Heteroclite grous.” 
It next concerns us to notice the first advent of Syrrhaptes 
paradoxus to the western palcearctic region, from which it had been 
excluded prior to 1853. It is now a fact of common information 
that in that year a horde of these Tartars invaded eastern Russia, 
and founded a permanent settlement in the neighbourhood of 
Sarepta. Some six years later the news came that specimens had 
reached the British Isles, examples being secured in Wales, in 
Kent, and in Norfolk (1859). These proved to have been the scouts 
of a large body which swept across Western Europe in 1863-4. 
Professor Newton, the historian of this incident, estimating the total 
number of the invading host at only less than seven hundred 
Dr. Sclater quotes the following passage from Emile Huc’s ‘‘Tartary, 
Tibet, and China,”’ and though an endeavour to verify his reference has failed, it 
is perhaps sufficiently amusing to be worth reproducing here. ‘‘ Tartary is 
peopled with migratory birds. Among these was one which I believe to be 
unknown to our naturalists. It is about the size of a quail, of an ash colour 
with black spots, and its eyes of a brilliant black, and surrounded with a bright 
sky-blue rim. Its legs have no feathers, but are covered with long rough hair; 
and its feet are not like those of any other bird, but resemble those of the green 
lizard, and are covered with a shell so hard as to resist the sharpest knife. This 
singular creature, which seems to partake at once of the character of the bird, 
the quadruped, and the reptile, is called by the Chinese Loung-Kio, that is 
Dragon’s Foot. They generally arrive in great flocks from the north, especially 
when much snow has fallen, flying with astounding rapidity, so that the move- 
ment of their wings is like a shower of hail. When caught, they are extremely 
fierce ; the hair on their legs bristles up if you approach them, and if you venture 
to caress them, you are sure to receive some violent blows from their beak,” 
(P. Z, S, 1861.) 
