258 CLASS AVES, 



where the fowlers wait for them in ambush. Darluc tells us, 

 that when a few shots have been fired, they stop no longer, 

 and drink flying, and shaving the surface of the water. Their 

 flesh is in little estimation, except that of the young. 



This species is found in the south of France, Spain, and 

 Italy ; likewise in Africa, as in Barbary and Senegal. They 

 are found in immense numbers in the deserts of Syria and 

 Arabia. 



Of the Singed Grows {Pterocles Exustus), of which the 

 opposite is a figure, from the drawings of General Hardwicke, 

 a specific description will be found in the text. 



The meeting Avith the Namaqua Grous (Pterocles Ta- 

 chypcetes) is a happy omen for the thirsty traveller amid the 

 burning plains and sandy billows of the South African 

 deserts. When he perceives at a distance the troops of this 

 ganga alight on some particular spot of this sojourn of death, 

 it assuredly indicates the presence of some reservoir of water. 

 Levaillant, in his travels in that country, was more than once 

 preserved from imminent danger of perishing by following 

 the course of these wandering birds, who were directing their 

 accelerated flight towards rocks, whose hollows frequently 

 contain depots of water. But when their bands, composed 

 of many thousands, pursue their wandering course until they 

 are out of sight, it is a proof of the total aridity of the soil ; 

 then the unfortunate traveller has little prospect except of an 

 untimely end in the midst of these inliospi table wastes of 

 choking sand. 



When the springs are totally dried up in the desert, these 

 birds visit the countries which are intersected with water, 

 and approach the neighbourhood of the Cape. Towards the 

 rainy season, however, they are to be seen no longer in this 

 latter locality, but direct their flight back to the deserts 

 situated under the Line and the Tropics. On the confines of 

 these they make their nests in tufts of grass and bushes. 



