2:6 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



Family PTEROCLID^E. 



PALLAS' SAND-GROUSE. 



Syrrhaptes paradoxus, PALL. 



PALLAS' Sand-Grouse was a bird unknown to British ornithologists as a 

 native until the year 1863, when large flocks of these birds passed from 

 Central Asia across Europe, and some hundreds crossed the North Sea to the 

 shores of England, and continued their westerly flight until some even reached 

 the Atlantic coast of Ireland, and others were shot in the Shetland and the Fseroe 

 Islands, almost all being ruthlessly destroyed.* Twenty-five years after a still 

 larger migration of these birds took place, in all probability some thousands 

 reached our shores, and they attracted so much attention that a special Act of 

 Parliament was passed for their protection, but not without the ignorant obstruc- 

 tiveness of some members who insisted on the operation of the Act being delayed 

 for some months, which gave an opportunity for all the birds to be exterminated. 



The habits of the bird in its native deserts was admirably described by 

 Colonel Prjevalski. They migrate from north to south, according to the season, 

 in flocks of countless thousands, feeding mainly on the seeds of a plant allied to 

 our common goosefoot, they also feed on the smaller grasses and the tender shoots 

 of the desert plants. They fly with extreme rapidity, and on the wing so closely 

 resemble our ordinary Golden Plover, that they have frequently been shot in 

 mistake for them. The call-note, however, of the Sand-Grouse is singularly unlike 

 the plaintive whistle of the Plover, and consists of a loud chuckle, which has been 

 variously rendered. Prjevalski describes it as truck-titruk, truck- turuk, while Dr. 

 McRury calls it a sharp cry, something like whirk, u'/iirr, and Captain Dunbar 

 Brander renders it as c/ia/c, cliak. 



When breeding they construct no nest, but deposit the eggs upon the sand, 

 there being tisually three in each nest. Some idea of their numbers may be 

 inferred from the fact that the late Consul Swinhoe described their migration into 

 China in severe winters, and said the market at Trietsin was literally glutted with 

 them, and they could be purchased for a mere nothing, the natives catching them 



* This Sand-Grouse was first made known to science by Pallas, who described it from an imperfect 

 specimen obtained by a Russian, named Nicol Rytsckof. Pallas therefore figured the bird without representing 

 the long central tail feathers. 



