82 



8 



Professor several living birds which had been snared by a gunner on their nests in the above- 

 mentioned district, together with four of their eggs. One of the latter was found by Herr 

 Bulow in the box which conveyed the birds, having been laid on the journey. It was colourless, 

 indicating that it had been prematurely produced. The other three eggs were fully coloured. 

 It appears that this gunner found two nests of the Syrrhaptes in his own neighbourhood, and a 

 third at a place called Bierregaard. On two of the nests both the birds (in each case the hens 

 first and then the cocks) were caught, on the 6th June. These nests were near one another ; and 

 one, containing three eggs, consisted of a slight depression in the sand, lined with a little dry 

 marram. The other had only two eggs, was placed among some ling, and furnished in a like 

 manner. The third nest was similar to the first, and was halfway up a sandhill. Of the three 

 eggs sent to Herr Bulow, he found that two were quite fresh, but in the third the foetus had 

 begun to form, showing that they had been taken from different nests. Some more nests were 

 found by other people, but unfortunately none of them were taken care of. The gunner, at 

 Herr Bulow's request, made further search, but not until the 27th of July did he succeed in 

 making any new discoveries. On that day he met with a flock of about a dozen birds, of which 

 he shot two. He then went again to Bierregaard, where at last he put a bird off its nest among 

 some stones in the sand, and containing three eggs. Next day he returned to it, and set a snare, 

 in which, after two or three hours, the hen bird was caught ; and a few hours later, having reset 

 the snare, he procured the cock in the same way. In the interval he found, to his surprise, that 

 one of the eggs had been hatched. He took away with him the pair of old birds, the newly born 

 chick, and the remaining tAvo eggs, which, on getting home, he put in a box of wool by the fire, 

 where a second egg was hatched. The third proved to be rotten. The chicks only lived one day ; 

 and it seems they were not preserved. On that same day (the 28th), while waiting about for 

 these birds to be caught, he stumbled on another nest, from which he shot both owners." 



The specimens figured are a male from the collection of Mr. R. Swinhoe, in the foreground, 

 and a female from my own collection in the background. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens : — 



E litis. H. E. Dresser. 



a, 2 ■ Near Cologne, 1863. 



a, 6 , b, 2 . Turkestan {Severtzoff) . 



E Mus. Howard Saunders. 



E Mm. R. Swinhoe. 

 a, 6 ad., b, 6 juv. Tien-tsin, China, December 1860 (R. S.). 



