204 MR. W. K. PARKER ON THE OSTEOLOGY 
The foot of the Syrrhaptes reminds me of that of the Hyraz; but the latter creature, 
having two pairs of limbs, takes advantage (not being able to burrow) of ready-made 
houses in the clefts of the rocks; the home of the Syrrhaptes is on the vast sandy 
plateaux of Central Asia. For a description of these ‘‘ Steppes,” see Humboldt’s ‘ Views 
of Nature,’ Bohn’s edit. pp.3, 28,57. This gentle desert-bird has great charms for me, 
and it would be much more appropriate to write a sonnet in its praise than to spend 
all this time and labour in a dry and positive description of its osteology. 
The viscera of the Syrrhaptes are tetraonine to a great extent ; the trachea is carti- 
laginous, and it has at its bifurcation what the Grouse is bereft of, viz. a pair of laryn- 
geal muscles, as in the Pigeon, Talegalla, and Plover. 
The crop, gizzard, gall-bladder, and small intestines are much the same as in 
ordinary Gallinaceous birds ; but, as in Lagopus, the ceca coli are very voluminous, 
they have, however, twelve longitudinal continuous folds in their mucous membrane, 
not seven as in the Ptarmigan. The proventricular glands are ovoidal and simple, as 
in the Pigeon and Plover, not botyroidal as in the Grouse and Fowls. In the latter, 
e. g. Pavo, Meleagris, Numida, Phasianus, Dendrortyz, the czca coli are not so long, 
and have inosculating folds. 
Example 2: The Common Sandgrouse (Pterocles arenarius). 
The difference between the skull of Pterocles arenarius and Syrrhaptes paradoxus are 
not great, but they are important. The head and face of the former are altogether 
stronger, more gallinaceous, and less pigeon-like than in the latter. The skull-base 
has, in the Pterocles, that peculiar breadth which arises from the struthiousness of its 
structure. The upper frontal region is broader between the eyes, and the ale of the 
ethmoid swell up to a greater extent between the crura of the nasal. The postorbital 
and squamosal processes are much stronger, and make a thicker bridge over the tem- 
poral fossa. The crossing of the posterior and horizontal semicircular .canals project 
in the same hemispherical manner as in Syrrhaptes, and the tympanic ala of the lateral 
occipital is equally arrested. The malar arch is stronger, and the central interorbital 
space is filled up ; so also are the orbito-frontal fontanelles ; the common optic foramen 
is more closely and neatly circumscribed. There is still an oval slit, opening into both 
orbits, between the ethmoid bar and the lower edge of the frontals at their coalescence. 
The antorbito-lachrymal mass is equally large, and the septum nasi as well developed 
and as completely ossified. The bones of the face generally are quite as strong as in 
ordinary Pigeons, and therefore a degree beyond what is seen in Syrrhaptes. The 
double head of the ‘‘ os quadratum ” agrees with the same structure in Syrrhaptes ; and 
there is nothing special to remark upon in the bones of the palatine region. The lower 
jaw is altogether stronger and deeper, its bend is more marked and further back, than 
in that of Syrrhaptes; the membranous space is of about the same size, as are also the 
angular processes. 
