538 PALLAS'S SANDGROUSE 



water as far as the cleft of the mouth, and then suck the water in 

 without raising the head till they have finished drinking. Pterocles 

 and Syrrhaptes, on the other hand, drink as fowls and other birds do, by 

 taking up water mouthful by mouthful and raising the head to let it run 

 down the throat. 1 They have certain favourite drinking-places, and 

 return to them with the utmost regularity, though the hour depends 

 somewhat on the time of year. Prjewalsky noticed them chiefly be- 

 tween 9 and 10 A.M., but in Scotland they were observed to drink and 

 bathe between 7 and 8 A.M. in October. On the ground they have a 

 very peculiar and awkward gait, taking very short steps and waddling 

 from side to side, while the tracks they make in the sand resemble 

 those of small mammals. When flying to their feeding-grounds, the 

 flocks occasionally rise high in the air, and single birds will sometimes 

 swoop downwards and swerve upwards to rejoin the rest as rooks 

 frequently do. Radde states that in spring he found the crops and 

 .stomachs of shot birds full of the seeds of Salsola, and adds that they 

 regularly graze on the young juicy shoots of the Salicornice. Prejwal- 

 sky states that in Mongolia they subsist chiefly on the seeds of 

 Agrwphyllum gobicum. All the sandgrouse are fond of basking in the 

 sun, frequently lying on their side and stretching out a wing, and 

 probably Tristram mistook this attitude for that of the incubating 

 bird, when penning his notes in the Ibis on the blackbellied-sand- 

 grouse. Most species of these birds are known to drink twice a day, 

 generally towards nightfall, but whether this is the case with 

 Syrrhaptes is not definitely recorded. During the hottest part of the 

 day they rest, and are fond of dusting themselves, like the game birds 

 and fowls, scratching a hole in the loose sand, in which they partially 

 bury themselves, ruffling up their plumage to allow the sand to 

 penetrate thoroughly. At such times they will allow a very near 

 approach, but on account of their protective colouring are difficult 

 to distinguish. In their roosting-habits at night they also recall the 

 partridge, collecting into coveys and resorting to one spot, where 

 they may be heard calling after the darkness has fallen. 



1 Proc. Zool. Society, 1882, p. 329. 



