sANb-GROtrsii. 
250 
Among other distinctive characters may be mentioned the 
schizorhinal nasals and the sternum, with two notches on 
each side of the posterior margin, the inner one being some- 
times reduced to a foramen (fig. 3). 
The bill resembles that of the Trite Game-Birds, but is not 
so strongly developed. 
Three toes only occur, the hind-toe, when present, being in 
a rudimentary condition. The feet are very short and feathered, 
and the toes are either naked or thickly covered with plumes. 
The wings are long and pointed. 
The feathers of the body have well-developed after-shafts, 
like those of the True Game-Birds, but the fifth secondary 
flight-feather is absent. 
The young are born covered with down, and are able to run 
soon after they are hatched. 
The eggs are almost invariably three in number, smooth and 
glossy in texture, equally rounded at both ends, and double 
spotted, a set of pale purplish marks beneath the surface of the 
shell underlying the brown surface spots (Grant, l.c). 
THE SAND-GROUSE. FAMILY PTEROCLIDHi:. 
The characters for the family are the same as those of the 
Order Pterocleies, there being but one family in the order. 
Only one species has occurred within our limits. 
THE THREE-TOED SAND-GROUSE. 
GENUS SYRRHAPTES. 
Syrrhaptes, Illiger, Prodr. p. 243 (1811). 
Type, 5 . paradoxus (Pall.). 
Pallas’s Sand-Grouse, which is the only species which has 
occurred in Great Britain, is distinguished from all the other 
members of the Order Pterocleies by the want of the hind-toe. 
The tarsus and the toes are covered with feathers. 
Two species of Syrrhaptes are known, one, S. paradoxus, 
described below, and the other, S. tibetamcs, being an inhabi- 
tant of Central Asia. 
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