GALLINACEOUS BIRDS 



GALLING. 



Grouse Tetrao. The almost countless number of gallinaceous 

 birds are distributed in one form or another over the whole world ; 

 thus, while we may meet with members of this family dusting them- 

 selves in the sands under the equatorial sun, the footprints of others 

 have been discovered in the Polar snow as far as 86 6' N. latitude 

 (Feilden, Arctic Journal). In Heligoland, however, up to 1863 

 only one member of this family was represented, viz. the Common 

 Quail. In the year in question, and again in 1883, the wonderful 

 invasion of Pallas' Sand Grouse from Central Asia took place, by 

 which a second species of the Gallinse was added to the avifauna of 

 this island. Since then a third species, the Partridge, has been 

 added, this bird having been seen here for the first time in 1889. 



241. Pallas' Sand Grouse [STEPPENHUHN]. 

 TETRAO PARADOXA, Pallas. 1 



Heligolandish : Rott-futted = Rat-footed. 



Tetrao paradoxa. Pallas, Zoogr. JRoss.-Asiat., ii. 74. 



Pallas' Sand Grouse. Dresser, vii. 75. 



In May and June 1863 the whole of Europe was flooded by a 

 remarkable host of this Asiatic species, Heligoland, too, as one 

 might have expected, coming in for its share. Small bands of three 

 or five, but also larger ones of twenty and even fifty individuals, were 

 seen almost daily, and sometimes, though in rarer instances, flocks 

 of a hundred or more. These latter for the most part were observed 

 hastening along at a tremendous speed, the flights, however, not 

 proceeding in one direction, after the manner of a fixed migra- 

 tory movement, but irregularly in all directions, according to what 

 appeared to be the prevailing mood of a particular company: 

 frequently, too, a large flock on the island would exchange places 

 with a smaller one on the sandbank, and vice versd. 



1 Syrrhaj)tes paradoxus ( Pallas). 

 438 



