540 PALLAS'S SANDGROUSE 



less active than the young of the game birds, one hatched under a 

 hen in Denmark throve well on grass and clover seeds ; and the 

 young of other species of sandgrouse hatched in confinement could 

 feed and forage for themselves at once, and refused to be brooded 

 by their parents after the tenth day. Herr Winge's paper, men- 

 tioned above, does not make it clear whether water was supplied 

 to the nestling or not. It would be interesting to know whether this 

 was the case, as it is now known that the pintailed-, singed-, and 

 blackbellied-sandgrouse supply their young with water, the male 

 bird visiting some pool of water in the neighbourhood, and after 

 thoroughly soaking his breast plumage, returning to the nest in 

 order that the young may drink, by taking the water in their bills 

 from the wet feathers. This habit was first recorded by Mr. Meade- 

 Waldo in 1895, and now that the method of procedure in the case of 

 the allied species is known, it should not be difficult to ascertain 

 whether the habit is also common to the genus Syrrhaptes. 



Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty 

 at the Edinburgh University Press 



