SAND-GROUSE 809 
however, contrived to get through another winter in Great Britain, 
and if rumour may be credited, all had not disappeared even in 
1892, but this is by no means certain. The interest attaching to 
the several European irruptions has almost made ornithologists for- 
getful of the somewhat similar inroad upon the plains between 
Pekin and Tientsin in China in the autumn of 1860, which affords 
another proof of the propensity of the species to irregular 
migration.+ 
Externally all Sand-Grouse present an appearance so distinctive 
that nobody who has seen one of them can be in doubt as to any 
of the rest. Their plumage assimilates in general colour to that of 
the ground they frequent (¢f. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, p. 336), 
being above of a dull ochreous hue, more or less barred or mottled 
by darker shades, while beneath it is frequently varied by belts of 
deep brown intensifying into black. Lighter tints are, however, 
exhibited by some species—the drab merging into a pale grey, the 
buff brightening into a lively orange, and streaks or edgings of an 
almost pure white relieve the prevailing sandy or fawn-coloured 
hues that especially characterize the group. The sexes seem 
always to differ in plumage, that of the male being the brightest 
and most diversified. The expression is decidedly Dove-like, and 
so is the form of the body, 
iC but their appearance when 
Fé 1G flying in a flock is more like 
(f& that of Plovers.2_ The long 
iC : g 1@ wings, the outermost primary 
of which in Syrrhaptes has 
its shaft produced into an 
attenuated filament, are in 
all the species worked by 
exceedingly powerful muscles, and in several forms the middle 
rectrices are likewise protracted and pointed, so as to give to their 
wearers the name of Pin-tailed Sand-Grouse. The nest is a shallow 
hole in the sand. Three seems to be the regular complement of eggs 
laid in each nest, but there are writers who declare (most likely in 
error) that the full number in some species is four. ‘These eggs are 
of peculiar shape, being almost cylindrical in the middle and nearly 
alike at each end, and are of a pale earthy colour, spotted, blotched 
SYRRHAPTES ON THE WING. 
(Wilton, Norfolk, Sth October 1888.) 
1 It appears to be the “‘ Barguerlac” of Marco Polo (ed. Yule, i. p. 239) ; and 
the ‘‘ Loung-Kio” or “‘ Dragon’s Foot,” so unscientifieally described by the Abbé 
Hue (Souvenirs d’un Voyage dans la Tartarie, i. p. 244), can scarcely be any 
thing else than this bird. 
2 I write with especial reference to Syrrhaptes, a flock of which may be easily 
mistaken for one of Golden Plovers, as the figure shews, though the former have 
the wing more curved and keep stroke with far more regularity, their ‘‘ time” 
(as an oarsman would say) being absolutely perfect, 
