SYRRHAPTES TIBETANUS 319 



Measurements. Females. — " Length 16"5 to 18'0, expanse 27 to 28, 

 wing 97 to 9-9, tail 70 to 84, tarsus I'l, bill as before 072 to 0-73." 

 (Hume.) 



I have been able to take the measurements of some twenty 

 females, and these bear out Hume's measurements in making the 

 females decidedly smaller than the males. The wings vary from 

 980 inches ( = 248-8 mm.) to 10-45 ( — 266-4 mm.) and have an 

 average of lO'll ( =256-8 mm.), the tails are also much shorter, 

 seldom exceeding 8-5 ( = 215-9 mm.) and generally below -8 

 ( = 203-2 mm.) 



Young Male. — A young male has only faint traces of yellow at 

 the sides of the neck ; the barring on breast and back to tail is like 

 that of the female, the deep black blotching to the scapulars is almost 

 wanting, the median coverts and inner secondaries are much barred 

 as well as vermiculated, but the rest of the wing-coverts are 

 marked as in the male. The wing of this bird is only 8-85 inches 

 ( = 223-8 mm.). 



" A quite immature male resembles the adult female but has only 

 a trace of yellow about the ear- coverts, and the barring of the upper 

 parts of the body is coarser and more irregular." {Ogilvie-Grant.) 



Distribution. — " Thibet, extending northwards to the Koko-Nor, 

 west to the Pamir, and south to Ladakh and the Sutlej Valley." 

 {Ogilvie-Grant.) 



Hitherto the Tibetan Sand-Grouse has only been found within 

 Indian limits in Ladakh and the Sutlej Valley, but it has been known 

 to extend close to Sikhim in Tibet, and Blanford was given some 

 caged birds by the Governor of Kambajong which were procured just 

 across the border. Now, however, I have been sent eggs taken in 

 Sikhim which are most undoubtedly those of Sijrrhaptes, and, 

 though they happen to be a very small-sized set, they cannot be 

 anything else but tibetanus, as paradoxus could not possibly occur 

 there. 



Hume found them in great numbers on the Koopshoo plains 

 about the Tso Mourari and Tso Khar and the head of the Pangong 

 Lake, which is just inside the eastern boundary of Ladakh. 

 Biddulph also found them near this latter lake at 15,000 feet and 

 again at 18,000 feet on the Karakorum Pass. 



