490 SAND-GROUSE. 
winter to the plains of Pechili in China. On the high tablelands 
of Tibet its representative is its sole congener, S. “befanus. 
The eggs, usually 3 in number, are laid in April or May, in a 
hollow scratched in the sandy soil; they are elliptical in shape, and 
stone-buff blotched with purple-brown in colour: average measure- 
ments 1's by 1'r in. Both sexes appear to incubate, as a male 
was shot off one of the clutches of eggs obtained by Mr. Swailes. 
The note has been rendered as ¢ruck-turuk, or whirk, whirr, or 
again as chak, chak. The food consists of seeds of plants, such as 
chick-weed and corn-spurrey, as well as of seeds of clover, turnip 
and rye; with some insects. The flight is rapid, and very like 
that of the Golden Plover. The birds have a habit of almost 
burying themselves in the sand, with which their colour closely 
assimilates. 
The adult male has the head yellowish-grey ; chin whitish, throat 
pale rust-colour ; back, scapulars and rump warm buff, barred with 
black ; quills bluish-grey, as are the long and pointed central tail- 
feathers ; neck and breast greyish-buff, crossed by a mottled black 
gorget ; belly banded with black ; feathers of the vent and of the 
feet down to the toes dull white. Length 14°75 in. ; wing g'1 in. 
In the female the head and sides of the neck, and the upper parts 
generally, are striped and spotted with black, a band of the same 
colour crossing the upper throat ; the general hue is duller, and the 
central tail-feathers are shorter. The young resemble the adult 
female, but have all the neck and chest spotted with irregularly- 
shaped blackish-brown marks, and the black bars on the inter- 
scapular region and the round subterminal spots on the less and 
median wing-coverts much less regular, being broken up into 
variously-shaped marks ; the filiform ends to the primaries and the 
tail-feathers (which are conspicuous in the adult) are not developed 
(Ogilvie Grant). 
