54 
which was obtained by Lord Gifford, on the banks of the Tsumureri 
Lake, in Thibet, and was firat described by Mr. Gould in 1850. 
These two birds have a close general resemblance, buth in structure 
and habits, to the other members of the family, but they aro 
distinguished from all other known Sand Grouse by the following 
characteristics:-—(1) The hind toe is entirely wanting. (2) The 
front toes are united by a web, and therefore the bird, although 
essentially a land bird, is strictly web-footed. As to this singular 
feature I shall have more to say later on. (3) The first primary 
feather in each wing terminates in a long filament, like the two 
central tail feathers in some other Sand Grouse. This is well 
shewn in Mr. Gould’s plate. (4) The legs, instead of being 
feathered only in front, as in the other members of the family, are 
entirely covered, down to the extremity of the toes, with short, 
dense feathers. Of the genus Pterocles, the British Museum 
collection contains fourteen species. Mr. H. Chasemore has kindly 
sent here this evening a case containing three specimens of the 
Singed Sand Grouse, or Rock Pigeon (Pt. exustus). These birds 
belong to a species which is common to North Africa and South 
Asia, and it is the most abundant species of Sand Grouse throughout 
India. It frequents the bare, open plains, and is very partial to 
ploughed lands and bare fallow fields. It goes regularly twice a 
day—at about nine in the morning and four in the afternoon—to 
some river or tank to drink. In parts of the country where water 
is scarce, they come from great distances, flying at a great height, 
and assemble at the tanks in thousands. They remain a few 
minutes at the water’s edge, and then fly off and return as they 
came. As they are very good eating they form one of the chief 
game birds of India. Like many of the other species of Sand 
Grouse, these birds are more or less migratory in their habits, and 
at Mhow and Sangor most of them leave the district after breeding 
in July, and do not return till the end of the rains. In Upper 
Egypt they breed in April and May. Another Asiatic species, the 
large pin-tailed Sand Grouse, or Khata (Pt. alchata), is decidedly the 
handsomest bird of the whole family, and it has, besides, an ex- 
ceptional interest attached to it, in that it is believed to be the bird 
upon which the Israelites fed in the Wilderness of Sin, as recorded in . 
Exodus, ch. 16, and at Kibroth Hataavah, as recorded in Numbers, 
ch. 11, and which is spoken of in our translation of the Bible as ‘‘the 
quail.’’ This bird is comparatively rare in India, and is only seen 
there in the cold season. It is said to exist in countless numbers 
in Palestine, where they appear in very large fiocks, and when 
these flocks leave the ground and fly off into the air, the effect is 
said to be very striking. In the mountains of Edom they are so 
abundant that the Arab boys are said sometimes to kill as many as 
two or three at a time by throwing a stick into the flock. This 
species, and probably others of the Pteroclide, have the same very 
