NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



ORDER XL— PTEROCLETES. 

 The Sand-Grouse. 



[Pt erodes and Pteroclurus.) 



Diet. — The sand-grouse feed on seeds and berries which they 

 obtain on the ground, or from low shrubs reached from the 

 ground. They also eat large numbers of insects and larvae of 

 various kinds. 



The namaqua sand-grouse, or namaqua partridge as it is 

 usually termed, is the best-known species. It occurs out on the 

 flats in the drier and more arid parts of South Africa. 



ORDER XIL- GALLINiE. 

 Partridges, or Francolins. 



(Genera — Francoliniis and Pternistes.) 



Diet. — The various species of partridges usually associate 

 in small coveys, except at the breeding time. They seek their 

 food on the ground out on the treeless veld, the grass veld, hills, 

 and mountain-sides. It consists of bulbous roots, tender shoots, 

 the larvae of blood-sucking flies, termites (white ants), the 

 wire-worm, grasshopper, locust, cut-worm, and a host of other 

 injurious insects, including the gorged female ticks which drop 

 from cattle. Occasionally they invade the outskirts of newly 

 planted grain fields, and pull up and eat the sprouting seeds or 

 feed on the freshly planted grain. Unless very abundant, which 

 is seldom the case, the partridge does little damage in this way, 

 and even when it does, the services it renders in destroying insect 

 pests usually compensates fifty-fold. The young partridges are 

 active from birth, the same as domestic chicks, and their diet 

 consists chiefly of insects, their larvae, and eggs. The partridge 

 is a bird of considerable economic value, and should not be 

 persecuted unless it happens to increase so abnormally as to be a 



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