Allen's naturalist's library. 
56c 
I. PALLAS S sand-grouse. SYRRHAPTES PARADOXUS. 
I'etrao paradoxa, Pall. Reis. Russ. Reichs. ii. A.i)n n 712 
(1773)- 
Syrrhaptes paradoxus, Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 7c, pi. 46S 
(1876); B.O. U. List. Brit. B. p. 140 (1883): Saunders 
ed. Yarrell’s Brit. B. iii. p. 31 (1883) ; Seebohm, Hist’. 
But. B. II. p. 419 (1884) ; Saunders, Man. Brit. B. p. 475 
(1889); Lilford, Col. P’ig. Brit. B. part xvii. (1891) ; Ogilvie 
Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 2 (1893); id. in Allen’s 
Nat. Libr. ix. p. 3, pi. i. (1895). 
Adult Male.— General colour above pale sandy buff; across 
the breast a band of white, each feather having a black sub- 
terminal cross-bar; throat rusty-red, not margined by a black 
line ; no black spots on the side of the neck ; on the abdomen 
a large black patch. Total length, i4‘6 inches ; wine, q'l ; 
tail, 7'o ; tarsus, o-8 (Grant, l.c.). 
Adult Female.— Differs from the male in having the sides of 
the neck spotted with black ; the band across the breast is 
wanting, and a black line bands the pale buff throat. Total 
length, 12-8 inches ; wing, 8’o ; tail, 5-5 ; tarsu.s, o'S (Grant, l.c.). 
Nestling.— Covered with beautifully patterned down, each 
plume of the body being distinct and almost scale-like in ap- 
pearance, quite different from the fluffy down of young Game- 
Birds. The general colour is pale buff, with patches of sienna 
and brown arranged in pairs on the sides of the head and the 
upper parts of the body. These patches are mostly margined 
and connected by irregular dotted black lines (Newton, Ibis, 
1890, p. 210, pi. vii.) 
Range in Great Britain. — Pallas’s Sand-Grouse only appears at 
certain intervals, when a great irruption into Western Europe 
takes place. Thus in 1863, and again in i888, large numbers 
visited Britain and even bred here. Notwithstanding the pro- 
tection afforded them by intelligent land-owners, the birds 
vanished by degrees, and probably migrated eastwards, back to 
their home in the Kirghis Steppes. 
Range outside the British Islands. — The home of Pallas’s 
Sand-Giouse is in the Kirghis Steppes, whence it extends to 
