SAND-GROUSE. 259 



Among other distinctive characters may be mentioned the 

 schizorhinal nasals and the sternum, with two notches on 

 each side of the posterior margin, the inner one being some- 

 times reduced to a foramen (fig. 3). 



The bill resembles that of the True Game-Birds, but is not 

 so strongly developed. 



Three toes only occur, the hind-toe, when present, being in 

 a rudimentary condition. The feet are very short and feathered, 

 and the toes are either naked or thickly covered with plumes. 



The wings are long and pointed. 



The feathers of the body have well-developed after-shafts, 

 like those of the True Game-Birds, but the fifth secondary 

 flight-feather is absent. 



The young are born covered with down, and are able to run 

 soon after they are hatched. 



The eggs are almost invariably three in number, smooth and 

 glossy in texture, equally rounded at both ends, and double 

 spotted, a set of pale purplish marks beneath the surface of the 

 shell underlying the brown surface spots (Grant, I.e.). 



THE SAND-GROUSE. FAMILY PTEROCLID^E. 



The characters for the family are the same as those of the 

 Order Pterocletes, there being but one family in the order. 

 Only one species has occurred within our limits. 



THE THREE-TOED SAND-GROUSE. 



GENUS SYRRHAPTES. 

 Syrrhaptes, Illiger, Prodr. p. 243 (1811). 

 Type, S. paradoxus (Pall). 



Pallas's Sand-Grouse, which is the only species which has 

 occurred in Great Britain, is distinguished from all the other 

 members of the Order Pterodetes by the want of the hind-toe. 

 The tarsus and the toes are covered with feathers. 



Two species of Syrrhaptes are known, one, S. paradoxus, 

 described below, and the other, S. tibetanus, being an inhabi- 

 tant of Central Asia. 



s 2 



