THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 193 



(248-8 mm.) to 10-45" (266-4 mm.) and have an average of 

 10-11 " (256.8 mm.), the tails are also mtich shorter, seldom ex- 

 ceeding 8-5 " (215.9 mm.) and generally below 8" (203-2 

 mm.). 



Young male. — A young male has only faint traces of yellow at 

 the sides of the neck ; the barring on breast and back to tail is like 

 that of the female, the deep black blotching to the scapulars is 

 almost wanting, the median coverts and inner secondaries are much 

 barred as well as vermiculated, but the rest of the wing coverts are 

 marked as in the male. The wing of this bird is only 8-85 " 

 (223-8 mm.) 



" A quite immature male resembles the adult female but has 

 only a trace of yellow about the ear coverts, and the barring of the 

 upper parts of the body is coarser and more irregular." (Ogilvie- 

 Grant.) 



Distribution. — " Thibet, extending Northwards to the Koko-Nor, 

 West to the Pamir, and South to Ladakh and the Sutlej Valley. " 

 (Ogilvie Grant.) 



Hitherto the Tibetan Sand-Grouse has only been found within 

 Indian limits in Ladakh and the Sutley Valley, but it has been 

 known to extend close to Sikhim in Tibet, and Blanford was given 

 some cage birds by the Governor of Kambajong which were procur- 

 ed just across the border. Now, however, I have been sent eggs 

 taken in Sikhim which are most undoubtedly those of Syrrhaptes, 

 and, though they happen to be a very small sized set, they cannot 

 be anything else but tihetanus as paradoxus could not possibly occur 

 there. 



Hume found them in great numbers on the Roopshoo plains about 

 the Tso Mourari and Tso Khar and the head of the Pangong Lake, 

 which is just inside the Eastern boundary of Ladakli. Biddulph 

 also found them near this latter lake at 15,000 ft. and again at 

 18,000 ft. on the Karakorum Pass. 



It descends only to about 12,000 ft. in the summer, but probably 

 much lower in the winter months. Hume says : " I do not think I 

 have ever met with this species at elevations above 17,000 or below 

 12,000 ft. but I have, of course, only seen it between 1st June 

 and 15th September and during the colder months it may descend 

 lower." 



" Although it keeps on barren and desolate steppes in the neigh- 

 bourhood often of rocky ranges, I have never seen it (the experience 

 of other seems to be different) on these or on steep hillsides, and I 

 have always noticed that there was sure to be some water, fresh or 

 brackish, within a reasonable distance of its feeding ground. 



" In the morning and afternoon it moves about on the more or 

 less undulating semi-desert plains feeding on grass and other seeds 

 and berries, and any young green shoots it can find. During the 



