332 Tetraonidce. 



Joseph Dean of Imber, as I described in the Zoologist at the 

 time.* 



Like other species of Sand-Grouse, S. paradoxus is remarkable 

 for its great length of wing, slender beak, shortness of foot, and 

 conical tail, the two middle feathers being elongated in a thread- 

 like manner ; also for the feathering of the legs and feet to the 

 extremity of the toes with short dense feathers ; the hind toe is 

 completely wanting. That it is not polygamous ; that both sexes 

 share in the duties of incubation ; and that three eggs are the full 

 complement of a nest, I gather from Professor Newton's paper. 

 And I may add from my acquaintance with an allied species in 

 Africa (S. exustus), that so much do its colours resemble the sands 

 of the desert it frequents, that it is extremely difficult to see it on 

 the ground ; while its sharp-pointed long wings give it a rapidity 

 of flight almost unequalled. In many respects it reminds one of 

 the Plover tribe. t Its scientific name is perhaps a little far- 

 fetched ; at all events its meaning is not self-evident and requires 

 explanation. Syrrhaptes is derived from <rvppd7rTiv t 'to sew or 

 stitch together/ because the last phalanges of the toes alone are 

 free; and paradoxus, 'strange,' 'contrary to expectation/ from 

 the curious structure of the feet.J 



129. PARTRIDGE (Perdix cinerea). 



Unlike the preceding members of this family, the well 

 known bird now under consideration thrives better in culti- 

 vated than in barren land, and nowhere multiplies more 

 rapidly than in the most highly farmed districts. Its appearance 

 and habits are so well known that it is unnecessary to enlarge 

 upon them. I will then merely append a few notes with which I 

 have been furnished by the late Kev. George Marsh : ' Since the 

 introduction of the new Game Laws, the numbers of this common 

 but beautiful and useful bird have very much declined. Their 



Zoologist for 1864, p. 8888. 



t See an admirable figure of this bird, as well as a good general descrip- 

 tion, by Mr. T. J. Moore, in the Ibis for 1860, vol. ii., pp. 105-110. 

 $ 'B.O.U. List of British Birds,' p. 140. 



