PALLAS* 8ANDOROU8E 



PALLAS'S SANDQROUSE 

 [F. C. R JOURDAIK] 



This remarkable bird occupies quite a unique position among our 

 British binK tor it cannot be classed ax a resident, though it baa 

 been known to breed and to stay through the winter, nor as a regular 

 summer or winter visitor or passage migrant, though it has visited our 

 shores on many occasions. Probably the closest |mrallels are to be 

 found in the cases of the continental crossbill and the rose-coloured 

 starling, although in the latter instance there is no proof of its having 

 bred within our limits, while the former has established itself as a 

 resident in a few localities for some years at any rate. There seems 

 to be no doubt that a considerable increase has, however, taken place 

 in the breeding range of the sandgrouse in a westerly direction of 

 late years on the Continent, so that we may confidently expect further 

 visits, and it is possible that in some favourably situated localities the 

 bird may, if efficiently protected, even become established as a breed- 

 ing species with us. 



Pallas's sandgrouse is the only representative on the British list 

 of the group Pterodete*. They form a tolerably well-defined order, 

 showing affinities in many respects with the Coktmba or pigeons. 

 Huxley, writing in 1868, and basing his conclusions almost entirely on 

 osteological grounds, regarded them as forming a transition group 

 between the pigeons and the fowls (GaUt). Since that time the 

 anatomy of these birds has been studied by Garrod, Brandt, Gadow, 

 and Beddard, and is now much better known. Beddard sums up his 

 chapter by saying that " the PterodeUs occupy a lower place than 

 the CWt/m/xr that they have given rise to the Columbff, and not 

 rice vena. . . . On the whole it seems not unreasonable to look upon 

 the PtcrodeUs as not far from the stock which produced the 

 Limicokt, which itself was possibly not far again from the primitive 



VOL. ii. SY 



