170 GAME BIRDS OF INDIA AND ASIA. 



broad toes being covered, like the very short shanks, 

 with feathers ; the tail has long centre-feathers as 

 in the Pin-tailed kinds. The general colour is 

 sandy, finely pencilled with black ; the throat is 

 dull yellow, the quills black, and the belly white. 

 The hen differs less from the cock than in other Sand- 

 grouse, but has the black pencilling coarser, and 

 extending all over the breast, the lower part of the 

 cock's being plain. As its name implies, this is a 

 bird of high Asia — Tibet and the Pamir, and Koko- 

 nor, but it is also found in Ladak and the upper 

 Sutlej valley. Its note, frequently uttered on the 

 wing, sounds something like Yuck-yuck. It drinks 

 very early in the morning and late in the evening. 

 Eggs obtained on the Pamir are of the typical Sand- 

 grouse shape, about two inches long, and cream- 

 colour, sprinkled over with small brown and grey 

 spots. The only other Asiatic Sand-grouse is also 

 the only other near ally of this bird. 



Pallas' Three-Toed Sand-Grouse. 



Syrrhaptes paradoxus, Brit. ilus. Cat., Birds, Vol. 

 XXII, p. 2. 



Native names. — Stepnaya kiiritza, Russian ; Sha-chee, 

 Chinese. 



With the same peculiar feet and pin-tail, this is a much smaller 

 species than the last, being of the turtle-dove size usual in sand- 

 grouse. The cock is buff above, coarsely barred with black on 

 the back. The throat is golden buff, the breast grey, ending in a 

 band of black pencilling ; then there is a broad cream-coloured 

 belt, followed by a black patch ; the hen is more finely pencilled 

 with black above, has a narrow black line bordering the throat, 

 and the breast spotted with black and without the bordering 

 band, but with the cream belly and black belly patch as in the 

 cock. 



