168 Order X 



joined and cased with hairy feathering, the hind-toe 

 being here absent ; long pointed wings and long tail, 

 the outer wing-feather on each side and the two central 

 tail-feathers being elongated into thin points ; a large 

 crop ; and downy young, which run from the shell. 

 They walk well, and fly swiftly after the manner of Golden 

 Plover, while it is a remarkable fact that an Asiatic 

 species alone visits us, and not one of its southern alhes. 



Family PTEROCLID^, or Sand-grouse 



To all lovers of birds Pallas's Sand-grouse {Syr- 

 rhaptes paradoxus) affords one of the most curious cases 

 of irregTolar migration. Usually it moves only to short 

 distances from its summer quarters on the barren 

 steppes of central Asia, but for some unknown reason, 

 at intervals of many years, it makes incursions in huge 

 numbers to western Europe. SmaU irruptions took 

 place in 1859, 1872, and 1876, but the main instances 

 were in 1863 and 1888. On both of these occasions 

 the birds reached us in May, and on the second a special 

 law was passed to protect them ; but they all dis- 

 appeared, with a few exceptions, before the following 

 spring. No eggs were obtained nearer than Holland 

 and Denmark in 1863, but in 1888 two sets were found 

 in Yorkshire, while a nestling was picked up on the 

 Culbin Sands near Nairn in Scotland by a keeper, who 

 discovered another in 1889. This incursion finally 

 reached the extreme west of Ireland. The flight of 

 this Sand-grouse resembles that of the Golden Plover, 

 being fast but often circling ; the birds customarily 

 scrape out holes in which they sit like barndoor fowls, 

 and then rise unwilhngly ; sandy districts naturaUy 

 attract them most. The note is of a clucking nature. 



