SAND-GROUSE. 389 



The gigantic flightless pigeon of Rodriguez, known as the 

 solitaire (Pezophapa solitaria), survived till a later date than the 

 dodo, having probably lingered on in the more remote parts of the island till 1761. 

 It was much longer in the leg than the dodo, and had a proportionately longer 

 neck, and the males, which were far superior in size to the females, had a peculiar 

 ball-like excrescence on the wings. Leguat, w r ho visited Rodriguez in 1691, found 

 the solitaires abundant, and has given us a good account of their habits, and a 

 truthful, if somewhat pre-Raphaelite portrait; while of late years numerous 

 bones of the solitaire have been brought to Europe, so that we have now a fail- 

 idea of its organisation and affinities. 



THE SAND-GROUSE. 

 Family PTEROCLID^E. 



The sand-grouse form a small group intermediate in their affinities between 

 the pigeons and game-birds; resembling the former in the most important 

 particulars of their skeleton, while their digestive organs are very similar to those 

 of the latter. 1 Among their other columbine characters may be specially 

 noted the great triangular deltoid crest of the humerus or upper bone of 

 the wing, the peculiar shape of which is so characteristic of the pigeon tribe ; this 

 deltoid crest being the projecting process on the right side of the upper-part of 

 the specimens figured on p. 391. To this process is attached the great pectoral 

 muscle which renders these birds capable of sustained and powerful flight. In the 

 game-birds this process (as shown in the same cut) is very differently formed, the 

 edge being rounded and curved inwards instead of nearly flat and triangular. 

 In the sand-grouse the body is rather stout and compact, the neck short and the 

 head small. The bill is short and shaped like that of the game-birds, although not 

 so strong ; there is never any naked space round the eyes ; the wings are long and 

 pointed, and the legs and toes are remarkably short, rendering it impossible for 

 these birds to perch on trees. The general tone of the plumage is suggestive of 

 the sandy arid regions these birds frequent, being a subtle mixture of subdued 

 colours, beautiful in their arrangement and pattern, but well suited to afford 

 protection by their perfect harmony with the surroundings. The majority of this 

 group inhabit Africa and South-Western and Central Asia, but Pallas's sand- 

 grouse ranges in summer to the north of Lake Baikal, and westwards to Pekin, 

 and the black-bellied sand-grouse extends to the Canary Islands and South-West 

 Europe, while Madagascar contains a species (Pteroclurus personata) peculiar to 

 that island, and the Pyrenean pin-tailed sand-grouse (P. pyrenaicus), a western 

 form of the Asiatic species (P. alchata), is met with in South-Western Europe and 

 North Africa. The flight of these birds is swift and powerful, and on the wing 

 they resemble the plover tribe. All are more or less migratory, and some travel 

 immense distances. They are in the habit of repairing in the morning and 

 evening to certain favourite drinking-places where numbers congregate. When 



1 In placing them here the Editor follows the late Professor Garrod, but the writer of this chapter prefers to 

 regard them as representing a distinct order. 



