GAME-BIRDS. 261 



Turkestan and the region of Lake Baikal, Mongolia, and 

 Northern China. 



Habits. The late General Prjevalsky writes : " After their 

 morning feed, the flocks betake themselves to some well or 

 salt-lake to drink, apparently preferring the fresh to the salt 

 water. At the drink ing-place, as well as at the feeding-places, 

 these birds never settle on the ground without first describing 

 a circle, in order to assure themselves that there is no danger. 

 On alighting they hastily drink and rise again ; and, in cases 

 where the flocks are large, the birds in front get up before 

 those at the back have time to alight. They know their 

 drinking-places very well, and very often go to them from 

 distances of tens of miles, especially in the mornings between 

 nine and ten o'clock, but after twelve at noon they seldom 

 visit these spots." In autumn they are very gregarious, and 

 large flocks are to be met with in the neighbourhood of their 

 breeding-ground, unless compelled to migrate to greater dis- 

 tances by a heavy fall of snow. 



Swinhoe says that in North China great numbers of these birds 

 are sometimes caught after a snow-storm, when they arrive in 

 large flocks in search of food. Having cleared the snow from 

 a patch of ground, the natives scatter a small green bean to 

 attract the birds and sometimes manage to catch a whole flock 

 in their clap-nets. 



Nest. None ; merely a slight hole scratched in the ground. 



Eggs. Three, sometimes four, in number. Like those of all 

 other members of the group, the eggs are perfectly oval in 

 shape and remarkably Rail-like in appearance, closely resem- 

 bling those of the Corn-Crake (Crex crex). The ground- 

 colour is olive or brownish-buff, spotted all over, though not 

 very thickly, with brown and pale olive or grey, the former 

 markings being on the surface of the shell, the latter beneath. 

 (Cf. Grant, t.c. p. 5.) 



THE GAME-BIRDS. ORDER GALLIFORMES. 



The following characters of the Order are summarised by 

 Mr. Ogilvie Grant (t. c., p. 25): "The nasals are holorhinal 

 (fig. 5) and true basipterygoid processes are absent, but are 



