8236 Birds. 



same ground deny that the young cuckoo casts out of the nest a number of helpless 

 beiugs, consigning them to unmerited death in order to promote its own well-being ? 

 It would ill become me to contradict any statement advanced by a naturalist of such 

 ability as Colonel Newman ; but, lest he may imagine that I have been misled by the 

 accounts of others, I will merely remark, with all deference, that, however unskilfully 

 I may have handled my theory-, the maiu facts which have been adduced in its sup- 

 port have occurred beneath my own observation, and are therefore beyond dispute. — 

 Henri/ L. Saxhy ; H.M.S. ' Devonshire,' Sheemess, October 2, 1862. 



Remarks on Pallas $ Sand-grouse (Syrrhaptes paradoxus).* — Our Secretary having 

 entrusted to my charge an example of Syrrhaptes paradoxus which died at the Gar- 

 dens, I am desirous of recording the results of my examination of it. I must apolo- 

 gize for the imperfection of the observations I am about to offer. I have not been 

 able to compare the skeleton of this bird with that of other sand-grouse, except from 

 memory ; and I prefer to confine my remarks to the structure of the sternal apparatus. 

 This, as is the case in other species of the peculiar group to which Syrrhaptes belongs, 

 offers at first sight an unquestionable resemblance to that of many of the Columbidae, 

 particularly of those members of the family which possess terrestrial habits. The 

 similarity seems principally to arise from the form of the lateral processes of the ster- 

 num, which in Syrrhaptes are widened and partially united to the main portion, as in 

 Chamaepelia and Geopelia, instead of being singularly prolonged and acuminated as 

 in the more typical Gallina;. The resemblance is also increased by the exceedingly 

 deep keel,' which is of similar conformation to that of the Columbidae generally. 

 But here the likeness ends. The coracoid bones, which I am incliued to regard as the 

 most characteristic in, as they are the most peculiar to, the ornithic skeleton, are 

 plainly framed on the true Gallinaceous model. The furculum is very different from 

 that of any other group of birds which I happen to remember, and bears no resem- 

 blance to the same bone in the Phasianidae or Tetraonidae. Still less, however, does it 

 indicate any approximation to the same part in the Grallae, or I may say of the Co- 

 lumbidae, with both of which groups the sand-grouse have been supposed to have 

 affinity. From the peculiarities, therefore, of the sternal apparatus I am fully of 

 opinion that Bonaparte, and those authors who have followed him, are quite right in 

 elevating it to the dignity of a family (Pteroclidae), though I imagine they were 

 chiefiy led to that conclusion by an examination of the external characters only. I 

 should have felt it incumbent upon me to have made some remarks on the information 

 possessed by naturalists respecting this rare and curious bird ; but almost all that can 

 be said on the subject has recently been admirably recapitulated in a paper by my 

 friend Mr. T. J. Moore, in the ' Ibis' for last year.f I would, however, observe that 

 although the illustrious Pallas has the credit of first giving a description of this bird, 

 he does not appear to have seen more than a single example of it, which was obtained 

 in the Kirghis steppes by Nicolas Rytschkof, and mentioned by him in his Journal. % 



* Read before the Zoological Society of London. Communicated by the author, 

 Alfred Newton, Esq., M.A., F.Z.S. 



t The ' Ibis,' 1860, p. 105. 



+ ' Kirghis-Kaisazkoi Stepie, &c. St. Petersburg, 1772, p. 40.' I have not been 

 able to see this work, and only quote the reference at second hand.— ^. N. 



