usual number: they are white, of an oval shape, and average
1*5 in length by 1*1 in breadth. Incubation lasts sixteen
days, the male taking turns with the female. An account
of the breeding of the Passenger Pigeon in the Zoological
Gardens will be found in the Proceedings of the Society
for 1883, p. 10, and other similar instances'are on record.
In the adult male the beak is black; head, back of the
neck, wing-coverts, back, and’ upper tail-Coverfs bluish-grey ;
sides of the neck reddish-chestnut, richly glossed '-with
metallic gold and violet; scapulars, tertials, and middle of
back Olive-brown ; primaries lead-grey, with lighter coloured
outer margins, the shafts black; the tail, of twelve feathers,
long, .cuneiform; the four middle tail-feathers the ‘longest,
lanceolate and pointed; the outer four on each 'side graduated
; the middle pair dark brown; the rest' pearl-grey
on the’outer-web, whité^in tern ally, eaeh-with a patch of
reddish-brown at the base-of.the inner weh, -followed by
another of black; chin-bluish-grey-throat' and’breast purplish
chestnut, becoming violet on the belly and flanks ;• Vent
and under tailmovetts " white ; -JegsS and feet }re&/1 Total
length seventeen inches; -wing eight inches and a half.
The female is smaller, and much-duller in celofe | bbne&th,
pale ash instead of-chestnut; ;exoept-a tingo-on thé neck.-
Young birds Have most'''of';the" feathers of the head and
body» margined: with dirty white-.
PTERÖCLETES. PTEROGLID2E.
SvRRHAPTES PARADOXUS (Pallas)1#
PALLAS’S., .SAND-GROUSE.
Syrrhaptes, 1 ttiger. f —Bill. small, gradually decurved from tlje base to the
point; nostrils basal, hidden in the feathers; wings very long, pointed, the
first primary longest; ta iv o f sixteen feathers, cuneate ; the two central ones
long and tapering; tarsi- very short-and strong, oovered-with downy feathers to
th e . toes, which are three in number, all -in front, gnd united by a, membrane, as
far as the claws ; hallux obsolete; soles rugous ; -clsiws broad and obtuse.,
In the ‘Proceedings of the ^bofegi^ahSociety,’ 1882, pp.
312-332, Dr. Hans ‘ Gadow" has recently published the
results' of a careful examination intd’me affinities>-of - the
Pteroclidee, with special referenefNio‘the opinion ^expressed
* Tetrao pa^qtdoxa, Pallas, Eeise. Buss. Eeiehs, ii., App. Tab. P.
(17V3). *-
t Illiger, Prodromus, p, 243,(1-811().'> -