526 PALLAS'S SANDGROUSE 



absent in the male. The fore-breast is spotted with black, but the lower pectoral 

 band of black and white is wanting, and the chocolate patch on the mid-breast is 

 much smaller and duller. The crown and hind-neck are striated with black ; the 

 primaries, like those of the male, but duller, and with less pointed ends ; the tail is 

 similarly less pointed. The juvenile plumage resembles that of the adult female, 

 but has the neck and fore-breast barred with irregular black bars, while the bars 

 on the interscapulars are very irregular in shape, the black patch on the under parts 

 is also wanting, and the wings and tail do not terminate in filaments. The young in 

 down, which is apparently a mesoptyle down, are of a pale buff colour with nine or 

 less distinct longitudinal lines along the head and back of sienna and brown, bordered 

 with narrow dotted lines of black. The general effect is almost that of a piece of 

 ' wool-work ' and is difficult to describe. This effect is due to the ' feathery ' 

 nature of the down which is of a less degenerate character than that of the 

 ' game-birds.' [w. p. p.] 



2. Distribution. This species has only been known to breed regularly in 

 Europe since 1876, when Henke found it breeding in the Kirghis steppes near 

 Astrakhan, and was assured by the inhabitants that it had not nested there 

 before. It has recently extended its range also to the Ufa government (of. Ornitholog. 

 Jahrbuch, 1908, p. 232). In Asia its breeding range extends from north-eastern 

 Turkestan through the desert regions of Central Asia east to Transbaikalia and 

 Mongolia. Its northern limit in Asia extends to about lat. 51 N., while in Tibet 

 it is replaced by the larger Tibet sandgrouse. Its ordinary winter range is regu- 

 lated by the climatic conditions, but during severe weather it ranges to the plains 

 between Pekin and Tientsin (Ibis, 1861, p. 341), but is unknown in the Indian sub- 

 region, and is apparently only subject to local movements in Russia and Turkestan. 

 The abnormal westward migrations are treated more fully below and on p. 98. 

 During these incursions attempts to breed have taken place in Denmark, Schleswig- 

 Holstein and Hanover in Germany, Holland, and the British Isles. For details of 

 British records see Birds of Yorkshire, ii. p. 602 (cf. also Whitaker, Notes on the 

 Birds of Notts, p. 222 ; and Stevenson and Southwell, The Birds of Norfolk, iii. 

 p. 393) ; Newton, Ibis, 1890, p. 213, and Harvie-Brown and Buckley, A Fauna of 

 the Moray Basin, ii. p. 132. [F. c. B. J.] 



3. Migration. A very irregular visitor from the Central Asian steppes 

 beyond the Caspian Sea, sometimes occurring in large numbers, and occasionally 

 surviving in the British Isles to breed in two consecutive seasons. The extra- 

 ordinary " irruptions " of this species cannot be strictly classed as true migratory 



