190 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIIL 



culars with the egg from Mesopotamia in the Tring Mnseiim. 

 Mr. Davidson's two eggs only differ, in that one has a distinct tinge of 

 o-reen in the ground colour and has a few rouge lines in addition 

 to the spots and blotches. 



The 20 eggs vaiy in length from the small egg taken byBlanford; 

 which is only 1-5" ( 38-1 mm.) to the huge oviduct egg taken 

 by Hartert which measures 1-91" (48-5 mm.). In breadth the 

 smallest dimensions are again those of Blanford's egg, i.e., 1-05" 

 ( 26-6 mm.) and the broadest is one in my collection of 1*20" 

 ( 30 mm.). The average of the 20 is 1-66" x 1-12" (=- 40-16 x 

 28-2 mm.) as against Dodson's average of 41 x 27 mm. 



The dates on which the various eggs were taken are as follows :— 



February 1 9th. — 3 oviduct eggs, Bulkley, Khargora. 



March 20th. — 1 oviduct egg, Blanford, Shikarpur. Sind. 



April 22nd. — 1 oviduct egg, Harter, Algeria. 



May 15th. — 1 egg, Mesopotamia. 



May 1 6th — Clutch of three, Jourdain, Kotri, Sind ; clutch 

 of three, Dresser, Sind. 



June 19th — 2 clutches Tomlinson, Bussorah, Persian Gulf. 



June ? — Clutch of three. Major Sparrow, Giza, Cairo, Egypt. 



July 17th. —Clutch of three, Dodson, Tripoli. 



August 14th. — 1 oviduct egg, Stuart Baker, Sind, 

 There is little doubt that the Spotted Sand-Grouse breeds regnilarly 

 in the deserts of Sind, but it is probable that they breed at gTcat 

 distances from where they drink and the would-be finder of their eggs 

 must hunt for them well in the interior of the desert, and most 

 remote tracts of desert. Tomlinson records that the eggs taken by him 

 were deposited in mere hollows in the sand with no trace of nest. 



Genus 8YREHAPTE8. 



The genus Syrrhaptes contains two species only, of which one- 

 comes within Indian limits. This can be at once distinguished 

 from all other Sand-Grouse by its greater size — its wing is always 

 over 9," — by the want of a hallux or hind toe and by its tarsi 

 being feathered all over, i.e., behind as well as in front, and by thp 

 upper surface of its toes also being feathered. 



It has the central tail feathers elongated as in Pteroclurus and 

 the wings are long and strongly pointed. In general appearance it 

 is a typical Sand-Grouse. 



The genus is confined to Central Asia as a resident, but there are 

 periodical rushes of Syrrhaptes paradoxus into Europe even as ; far 

 as Great Britain. , 



Syrrhaptes tibetanus. - : 



The Tibetan Sand-Grouse. 



Syrrhaptes tihetanus.— Gould, P. Z. S., p. 92, 1850; id, B. Asia, 

 vi, pi. 61; Blanford, J. A. S. B.' xli, pt. II, p. 71; Hume and 



