84 ANIMAL LIFE IN DESERTS 



Among birds which fly to water the most remark- 

 able are the Sandgrouse (Fig. 34). Sportsmen are 

 aware that-ithe various species of S andgrous e 

 (Pterocles and other gener a),jKh igtrt fiKabit nearly 

 J every part of th e Great Palsearc ticjesert water 

 hff at certain spots on the banks^ of rivers, at certain 

 ' regular "EourS. There is good evidence that the 

 birds fly in from very many miles, and as the chosen 

 watering-place is often very circumscribed, immense 

 numbers of birds congregate there for a very short 

 period every day. Different species of Sandgrouse 

 water at different times of day, the majority in 

 the early morning, Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse before 

 sunrise, or even in the middle of the night when 

 there is moonUght. / Sandgrouse normally stand in 

 jW shallow water when drinking, and as their legs are 

 short their breasts become saturated with water.if 

 This is true of both sexes and happens at all sea- 

 sons. It is reasonable to suppose that from this 

 has developed their very remarkable manner of 

 supplying water to their chicks. Native hunters 

 have always asserted that they carry water to their 

 young in the hot, bare desert in their saturated 

 breast plumage. That this is correct has been 

 proved by Meade-Waldo, who has had many broods 

 of Sandgrouse (fifty-one of Pterocles alcatus, seven 

 of P. exustus, and three of P. arenarius) hatched in 

 his aviaries. /The young feed themselves on small 

 y, seeds^from the time of their emergence from the 

 i/" egg, and are attended by both parents. " The 

 male rubs his breast violently up and down on the 

 ground — a, motion quite distinct from dustmg, — and 



