BIRDS 317 



Order PTEROCLETES. Fam. PTEROOLIDJE. 



PALLAS'S SAND GROUSE. 



Syrrhaptes paradoxus (Pall. ). 



Pallas's Sand Grouse is essentially an Asiatic species, making 

 its home in the arid Kirghis steppes, the great Gobi desert, and 

 extending its range eastward through Mongolia to the plains 

 between Pekin and Tienstin in North China (Elliott). Prjevalsky 

 states that Syrrhaptes paradoxus ' is one of the most characteristic 

 birds of Mongolia, inhabiting not only the steppes, but also the 

 deserts. In summer they go north, even beyond Lake Baikal, 

 where they breed, but spend the winter in the Gobi desert, in 

 such localities as are free from snow, and in Ali-shan ; and from 

 the middle of October we constantly meet with them there, 

 sometimes in flocks of several thousands ' (Rowley, Orn. Misc. i. 

 p. 382). 



The first man to obtain a specimen was a Russian, Nicol 

 Rytschkof, who forwarded it to Pallas, but in a mutilated 

 condition, having lost the long tail-feathers, which form so 

 conspicuous an ornament of the species. Not having a supple- 

 mentary tail, Pallas figured the specimen without one (Reise, 

 Buss. Beichs. ii. App. 712, Tab. F. 1773), and made some shrewd 

 remarks upon the new species, which he referred to the genus 

 Tetrao. He remarks : 'Avis inter Lagopodes et Otides ambigua, 

 multisque momentis anomala et a norma solita aliena.' Attention 

 is called to the curious feet : * Pedes maxime insoliti fere usque 

 ad ungues plumosi, breviculi, tridactyli, digitis brevissimis, 

 coalitis, solo apice unguibusque distinctil; unde planta triloba, 

 latiuscula, papillis corneis imbricata.' He concludes : ' Habitat 

 in deserto Tartarico australiore, unde adlatum specimen farctum 

 transmisit nobil Nicol Rytschkof.' Our countryman Latham, 

 following Pallas, conferred on the species the title of ' Hetero- 

 clite grous.' 



Having made these prefatory remarks for the sake of such 

 readers as are not professed naturalists, it becomes possible to 

 consider two irruptions of this Sand Grouse into Lakeland, in 

 the years 1863 and 1888 respectively. Mr. J. H. Gurney has 



