SAND-GROUSE 805 
SAND-GROUSE, the name! by which are commonly known 
the members of a small but remarkable group of birds frequenting 
sandy tracts, and having their feet more or less clothed with 
feathers after the fashion of GROUSE, to which they were originally 
thought to be closely allied, and the species first described were by 
the earlier systematists invariably referred to the genus Tetrao. 
Their separation therefrom is due to Temminck, who made for 
them a distinct genus which he called Pterocles,? and his view, as 
Lesson tells us (T’raité, p. 515), was subsequently corroborated by 
De Blainville ; while in 1831 Bonaparte (Saggio &c. p. 54) recognized 
the group as a good Family, Pediophili or Pteroclide. Further 
investigation of the osteology and pterylosis of the Sand-Grouse 
revealed still greater divergence from the normal GALLINA, as well 
as several curious resemblances to the Pigeons; and Prof. Huxley 
(Proc. Zool. Soc. 1868, p. 303) for sufficiently weighty reasons, pro- 
posed to regard them, under the name of PTEROCLOMORPH, as 
forming a group equivalent to the ALECTOROMORPH& and PERISTER- 
OMORPH&.*? The group consists of two genera *— Pterocles, with 
about fifteen species, and Syrrhaptes, with two. Of the former, two 
species inhabit Europe, P. arenarius, the Sand-Grouse proper, and 
that which is usually called P. alchata, the Pin-tailed Sand-Grouse. 
The European range of the first is practically limited to Portugal, 
Spain and the southern parts of Russia, while the second inhabits 
also the south of France, where it is generally known by its 
Catalan name of “ Gunga,” or locally as “ Grandaulo,” or, strange to 
say, “Perdriz d Angleterre.” Both species are also abundant in 
Barbary, and have been believed to extend eastwards through Asia 
to India, in most parts of which country they seem to be only 
winter-visitants ; but in 1880 Herr Bogdanow pointed out (Bull. Ae. 
Sc. Petersb. xxvii. p. 164) a slight difference of coloration between 
eastern and western examples of what had hitherto passed as 
P. alchata ; and the difference, if found to be constant, may require 
the specific recognition of each. India, where these birds are com- 
monly known to sportsmen as “ Rock-Pigeons,” moreover, possesses 
1 It seems to have been first used by Latham in 1783 (Gen. Synops. iv. p. 751) 
as the direct translation of the name Zetrao arenarius given by Pallas. 
2 He states (Man. d’Orn. ed. 2, ii. p. 474, note) that he published this name 
in 1809; but hitherto research has failed to find it used until 1815. 
3 Some more recent writers, recognizing the group as a distinct Order, have 
applied to it the name of ‘‘ PrerocueEres,” while another calls it Heteroclitz. 
The former of these words is based on a grammatical misconception, while the 
use of the latter has long since been otherwise preoccupied in zoology. If there 
be need to set aside Prof. Huxley’s term, Bonaparte’s Pediophili (as above 
mentioned) may be accepted, and indeed has priority of all others. 
4 Bonaparte (Compt. rend. xiii. p. 880) proposed to separate the Pin-tailed 
Sand-Grouse as Pteroclurus, and therein has been followed. by Mr. Ogilvie Grant 
(Cat. B. Br. Mus, xxii. pp. 2, 6), but this separation seems needless, 
