THE THREE-TOED SAND-GROUSE 211 



grain or interferes with the occupation of the gleaner. It is also 

 very partial to vetches. I have met with an instance where a 

 Turtle Dove paid daily visits to one particular spot, under a hedge 

 in a field, and though fired at by the owner of the field many times, 

 under the idea that it was a rare bird, it soon returned ; and when 

 at last shot, its crop was found to be full of vetch seeds which had 

 been accidentally spilled from a bag. 



The Turtle Dove is smaller than any of the other British Doves. 

 When flying, it seems scarcely larger than a Missel Thrush ; but 

 it is more slender in shape, and its wings are much longer. It beats 

 its wings, too, more rapidly, and moves through the air with greater 

 velocity. The tints of its plumage are more varied than in the 

 other British species, but far inferior in brilliancy to many foreign 

 ones. 



The Turtle Dove so frequently kept in a cage is the Collared 

 Turtle Dove (Columba risoria), a native of India and China. This 

 species is distinguished by a black crescent on the back of the neck, 

 the horns of which nearly meet in front. Turtle Doves are much 

 kept in Germany, owing to a strange popular superstition that 

 they are more predisposed than the human species to nervous 

 disorders and rheumatism, and that when any of these complaints 

 visit a house, they fall on the birds rather than on their owners. 



ORDER PTEROCLETES 



FAMILY PTEROCLIDiE 

 THE THREE-TOED SAND-GROUSE 



Legs and toes feathered to the claws ; no hind toe. Length sixteen to 

 twenty inches. 



This species was not known with us till 1859. Great flights visited 

 this country in 1863, in 1888, and in 1889 when a few pair breed 

 here. 



