806 SAND-GROUSE 
five other species of Pterocles, of which however only one, P. fasciatus, 
is peculiar to Asia, while the others inhabit Africa as well, and all 
the remaining species belong to the Ethiopian Region—one, P. 
personatus, being peculiar to Madagascar, and four occurring in or 
on the borders of Cape Colony. 
Syrrhaptes, though in general appearance resembling Pterocles, 
has a conformation of foot quite unique among birds, the three 
anterior toes being encased in a common “ podotheca,” which is 
covered to the claws with hairy feathers, so as to look much like 
SYRRHAPTES PARADOXUS. (From the Prospectus of Yarrell’s British Birds, ed. 4.) 
a fingerless glove, while the hind toe is wanting. The two species 
of Syrrhaptes are S. tibetanus—the largest Sand-Grouse known— 
inhabiting the country whence its trivial name is derived, and S. 
paradoxus, ranging from Northern China across Central Asia to 
the confines of Europe, which it occasionally, and in a marvellous 
manner, invades, as has been already mentioned (MIGRATION, p. 
571). Here the subject, which has a large literature of its own," 
must be treated very concisely. Hitherto known only as an 
inhabitant of the Tartar steppes, a single example was obtained at 
1 Dr. Leverkiihn has been at great pains to compile a bibliography of Syrrhaptes 
which will be found in the Monatsschrift des Deutschen Verein zum Schutze der 
Vogelwelt for 1888-92. 
