SAND-GROUSE. 389 
The gigantic flightless pigeon of Rodriguez, known as the 
sohtaire (Pezophaps 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 
Solitaire. 
neck, and the males, which were far superior in size to the females, had a peculiar 
ball-like excrescence on the wings. Leguat,*who 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 fair 
idea of its organisation and affinities. 
THE SAND-GROUSE. 
Family PTEROCLID. 
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 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 Asiatie 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. 
