horseback nor by stalking could he approach them. After being many times disturbed they betook themselves, 

 flying with no small noise, to the bank of the Tarei and eastwards over the high steppe, alighting on two places 

 where herds of cattle had been folded in the winter, and consequently covered with a thick layer of dung, 

 trodden so hard that no vegetation appeared through it. Here they settled closely ; and as night came on 

 he left them, making sure of finding them the next day ; but in the morning they had vanished, and throughout 

 the summer he did not meet with a single example in that district. The herdsmen assured him they would 

 return ; but it was not until October and in another locality, near Abagaitui, that he again saw them. They 

 were then flying in skeins, like Plovers, high and rapidly towards the north. The Cossacks who accompany 

 the caravans to Pekin across the Gobi told him that Syrrhaptes also inhabits those plains in great numbers, 

 and serves them for game on their march. From the above passages it will be seen that the bird is subject 

 to sudden movements on a very large scale, and of a kind which, at first sight, appear almost capricious." 



"During winter," says Mr. Swinhoe, " flocks of hundreds constantly pass over the plains between Peking 

 and Tientsin with a very swift flight, not unlike that of the Golden Plover. The market at Tientsin is 

 literally glutted with them, and you may purchase them for a mere nothing. The natives call them 

 1 Sha-chee,' or Sand-fowl, and told me they were mostly caught in clap-nets. After a fall of snow their 

 capture is greatest ; where the net is laid, the ground is cleared and strewed with small green beans. 

 This clear patch is almost sure to catch the eyes of the passing flocks, when they descend and crowd 

 into the snare. It only remains for the fowler, hidden at a distance, to jerk the strings, and in his 

 haul he not unfrequently takes the whole flock. Numbers, however, are shot with matchlocks. When 

 on the ground they are rather shy and difficult of approach ; but on the wing they will sometimes dart 

 within a few yards of you. The only note I have heard them utter is a rather melodious chuckle. The 

 natives say that during summer they are numerous on the vast plains of Tartary beyond the Great Wall, 

 and that they breed there in the sand." 



The male has the face buff, deepening on the lower part of the 'throat into a large gorget of light 

 chestnut-red ; on each side of the neck a mark of the same tint ; head, ear-coverts, sides of the neck, 

 breast, and abdomen blue grey, passing into greyish buff on the flanks, a few of the feathers on each side 

 of the breast edged at the extremity with black, forming a band which nearly meets in the centre ; beyond 

 the grey a broad band of black crosses the abdomen in front of the legs, posterior to which the abdomen, 

 the vent and under tail-coverts, the legs, and feet are creamy-white ; all the upper surface sandy-red crossed 

 by numerous crescentic bands of black, anterior to each of which is a wash of grey ; wing-coverts grey, 

 stairled on the edges with reddish buff; tips of the first row of the greater coverts bright chestnut-red, the 

 the second row black ; centre of the primaries and secondaries black, the inner webs bordered with greyish 

 stone-colour, and the outer webs bordered with grey next the shaft and outwardly with buff; tail similarly 

 marked to the upper surface, the outer feathers tipped with white ; the filamentous extremity of the outer 

 primary on each side and those of the two central tail-feathers black ; bill olive-green becoming darker towards 

 the tip of the upper mandible ; irides dark brown ; naked skin round the eye olive-grey ; toe-nails greenish 

 black. 



The above description is taken from a specimen killed in the Altai : I mention this because the bird seems 

 to be subject to some slight variation in colour. 



The female has the cheeks and chin light buff becoming gradually deeper on the lower part of the throat, 

 where it is bounded by a narrow crescentic line of black ; feathers of the head sandy-red, each with a dark- 

 brown centre ; the colouring of the upper surface is similar to that of the male, with this exception, that the 

 dark bands assume the form of arrow-heads ; the breast is dull greyish stone-colour, numerously spotted on 

 the sides with black ; the wing-coverts have each a spot of black near the tip ; in other respects the 

 colouring is similar to that of the male, but less vivid. 



The Plate represents the two sexes, of the natural size. 



