18/8.] MR. D. G. ELLIOT ON THE PTEROCL1D.E. 263 



white, with a narrow black hue bounding its lower edge. Upper 

 part of breast grey ; abdomen and a spot on the centre of flanks 

 dark chestnut ; chest and upper part of flanks, rest of underparts, 

 and under tail-coverts pure white. Entire upper parts buff ; secon- 

 daries and lesser wing-coverts barred irregularly with black. Greater 

 wing-coverts chestnut on their outer webs. Spurious wing-feathers 

 buff, with a central black line. Primaries grey on outer webs, dark 

 brown on inner, and margined on the innermost ones with buff. Tail 

 dark grey, tipped with white and barred on the inner webs with buff, 

 the outer webs having only a slight buff edging. First primary and 

 median rectrices filamentous, the lengthened portion brownish black. 

 Tarsi and toe* covered with greyish feathers. Bill brown. 



Total length lOf inches, wing to end of lengthened primary 8%, 

 tail to end of median rectrices 5-f-, bill along gape |-. 



I have not seeu this stage of plumage described by any writer. 

 There are two specimens in the Paris Museum — one a little more 

 mature than the other, with the bar across the breast commencing 

 to show as in the adult male. 



Female. Crown and neck buff, striated with black. Throat ochra- 

 ceous yellow, feathers edged with black. The upper parts like those 

 of tbe male, but barred more closely with black; and the wing-coverts 

 are spotted with black. Across the throat is a black band ; and the 

 sides of the neck and breast are spotted with black. Rest of plumage 

 like that of the male ; but the primaries and median rectrices are 

 not .so lengthened. The dimensions are about the same as those 

 of the male. 



2. Syrrhaptes tibetanus. 



Syrrhaptes tibetanus, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1850) p. 92 ; id. 

 B. Asia, pt. ii. pi. 12 ; Reich. Syn. Av. Gallin. (1851) pi. ccvii. b. 

 figs. 3020-21 ; Adams, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1858) p. 502, (1859) p. 

 186; Hend. & Hume, Lahore to Yark. (1873) p. 279 ; Prjevalsky 

 in Rowl. Orn. Misc. pt. ix. p. 384 (1877). 



Kaling, Tibet and Ladak (Henderson), Stepnaya Kuritza, Tibet- 

 skaya (Prjevalsky). 



Hab. Salt Lakes of Ladakh {Adams) ; Karakash valley, Yarkand 

 {Henderson) ; Northern Tibet, steppes of Kokonor {Prjevalsky). 



Mr. Henderson {I. c.) says that this species was met with by tbe 

 Yarkand Expedition in the Karakash valley towards the end of July, 

 also at a lake twenty miles south-west of Mallik Shah, and was very 

 abundant at Chagra, above the Pangong lake, where it flew up and 

 down the stream in flocks of several hundred individuals, uttering 

 all the time a cry like "Yak, yak." It was very tame; and a great 

 many were shot and, unfortunately, eaten. 



Lieut. Prjevalsky (/. c.) first met with this Sand-Grouse in the 

 Kokonor steppes in flocks of from ten to thirty, but in Northern 

 Tibet saw it in flocks of about a hundred individuals. They were 

 generally on the sandy plains, and fed on the seeds of various grasses 

 and beans. When so engaged they could be approached quite 

 close, and seldom flew above a hundred yards be fore settling again, 



