Volume 6, Plate XXIII / Ornithology (Birds)

Pallas’s Sand-Grouse

Syrrhaptes Pallasii

Syrrhaptes Pallasii, a curious bird scarcely nine to eleven inches with long pointed tail and wing feathers, is generally brownish yellow, clearer on the back and wings, with a black tipped band across the breast and a broader brownish black band on the belly. Its feet are extraordinary, the toes so short and downy as to be scarcely distinguishable, giving a slow painful walk yet rapid high flight; the female nests among stones with four reddish white eggs spotted brown.