PALLAS’S SAND-GROUSE. 421 
are irregular, sometimes almost fantastic in shape, and vary in size from 
that of a small pea to a mere speck. The eggs vary in length from 1:8 
to 1°6 inch, and in breadth from 1:2 to 1:1 inch*. 
These birds breed in small colonies scattered over the salt-plains ; and 
on their arrival in spring they are generally seen flying in small strings or 
skeins. After the breeding-season has begun, as soon as the sun has risen 
high enough to make it safe to leave their eggs, they may be seen flying in 
pairs to drink on the margin of a lake, where considerable numbers often 
accumulate, but afterwards disperse to feed before returning to their nests. 
Two broods are usually reared during the season; and the young are able 
to run and take care of themselves as soon as they are hatched. The 
female does not appear to be a very close sitter, but leaves her eggs on the 
approach of danger, as Plovers do, trusting to their protective colour for 
their security. 
In the middle of the hot summer they may often be seen basking in the 
sun about noon, in small parties consisting of one or more pairs. -They 
scratch a hole in the salty sand and lie diet on one side, with puffed-out 
plumage, as is the custom of many other Game Birds. If disturbed, they 
utter a cry as they rise and fly away with great rapidity, their wings making 
a peculiar noise. The swiftness of their flight is said almost to surpass that 
of the Falcons. On the ground their short legs cause them to run some- 
what clumsily, with short steps, and with the body swaying from side to 
side as they feed. 
The food of Pallas’s Sand-Grouse consists principally of the seeds and 
young shoots of the peculiar plants that grow on the salt-plains. It is a 
very shy and timid bird and difficult of approach. 
Prjevalsky writes :——“ After their morning feed the flocks betake them- 
selves to some well or salt-lake to drink, apparently preferring the fresh to 
the salt water. At the drinking-place, as well as at the feeding-places, 
these birds never settle on the ground without first describing a circle, in 
order to assure themselves that there is no danger. On alighting, they 
hastily drink and rise again; and, in cases where the flocks are large, the 
birds in front get up before those at the back have time to alight. They 
know their drinking-places very well, and very often go to them from 
* It would be as absurd to base a classification of birds on their eges alone, as it would 
be to do so on any other single character. The oology and my altey: the nervous system 
and digestive organs, the pterylosis, the form of the sternum, and the modifications of the 
cranial bones may all be very important characters, but we are absolutely ignorant of 
their relative importance. No classification based upon one only of these characters can 
be of any value; but the fact that the eggs of the Sand-Grouse and the Hemipodes differ 
from those of Cuntd Birds in having two sets of spots (underlying as well as surface), but 
agree with the Plovers in this respect, is an argument, as far as it goes, for regarding the 
Sand-Grouse and Hemipodes as more nearly allied to the Plovers than to the Game Birds, 
