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horseback nor by stalking could he approach them. After being many times disturbed they betook themselves,
ank 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.
return; but it was not until October and in another locality, near Abagaitui, that he again saw themes dlitey
were then flying in skeins, like Plovers, high and rapidly towards the north. The Cossacks who accompany
across the Gobi told him that Syrrhaptes also inhabits those plains in great numbers,
From the above passages it will be seen that the bird is subject
a kind which, at first sight, appear almost capricious.”

flying with no small noise, to the b

The herdsmen assured him they would

the caravans to Pekin
and serves them for game on their march.
to sudden movements on a very large scale, and of

«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
elutted with them, and you may purchase them for a mere nothing. The natives call them
and-fowl, and told me they were mostly caught in clap-nets. After a fall of snow their
laid, the ground 1s cleared and strewed with small green beans.

literally
‘ Sha-chee,’ or S
capture is greatest 5 where the net is
This clear patch is almost sure to catch the eyes of the passing flocks, when they descend and crowd
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
The only note I have heard them utter is a rather melodious chuckle. The

into the snare.

within a few yards of you.
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,
stained 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.

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