The New British Sand-Grouse. 197 



generally by night. The lakes and marshes of India, during 

 the cold weather, abound with these birds, which about April 

 and May commence their migrations to the colder and appa- 

 rently inhospitable climate of the Trans -Himalaya. 

 Oakhill, Toeqxtay, Sept., 1863. 



THE NEW BRITISH SAND-GROUSE. 



(PALLAS'S THREE-TOED SAND-GROUSE— SYRRHAPTES PARA- 

 DOXUS). 



BY THOMAS J. MOORE, 



Corresponding Member of the Zoological Society of London; Keeper of the Derby 



Museum, Liverpool. 



To the students of any department of natural history a new or 

 rare species is always an interesting subject ; if it be beautiful 

 in colour, or remarkable in form, the interest is proportionally 

 increased ; and if the family as well as the species be an addi- 

 tion to the fauna of his own country, that interest becomes 

 very great indeed. 



The ornithologist feels all this at least as keenly as any 

 other naturalist, and his feelings are largely shared by very 

 many, who, though not professed naturalists, yet delight in the 

 wonders and beauties of nature. 



The recent occurrence in Britain of numerous specimens of 

 a very handsome bird allied to the grouse kind, and which has 

 only within the last year or two been met with out of its native 

 haunts of Central and Eastern Asia, is a case in point. Here 

 is a bird recently new not only to England but to Europe, 

 chaste and elegant in colour, and certainly most remarkable in 

 form, and no other species of the same family has been 

 known to visit the British islands. Some account of its his- 

 tory, of its occurrence in our own country, and of its structure 

 and relationship, will doubtless be interesting to the readers 

 of the Intellectual Observer, and particulai'ly so to such of 

 them as are given to ornithological pursuits. 



This bird, then, was first made known to naturalists in 1 772 

 by Pallas, a learned and zealous German zoologist and traveller, 

 in the service of the Empress Katharine. He appears, how- 

 ever, to have seen, at that time at least, only a single and 

 not very perfect specimen, brought to him during his travels in 

 Tartary, by one Nicholas Rytschkof, who obtained it in the 

 Kirghiz steppes. Pallas published a figure and description of 

 it under the name of Tetrao paradoxus, but without giving any 

 information as to its habits, farther than that it was met within 



VOL IV. — NO. III. p 



