418 BRITISH BIRDS. 



The Sand-Grouse form a connecting-link between the Game Birds and 

 the Pigeons *, but resemble the former in the important fact that the 

 young are born covered with down and are able to run about and take care 

 of themselves. In the shape of the bill, which is short and curves from 

 *the base to the point, they resemble the Game Birds ; but their long 

 pointed wings are similar to those of the Pigeons, as is also the sternum, 

 the interior pair of notches on the posterior margin being very small. 

 The tail is pointed, and frequently the two central feathers are very long ; 

 the tarsus is very short and is covered with feathers ; the toes are also 

 frequently covered with feathers, and the hind toe is always small and 

 sometimes absent. The nostrils are almost entirely hidden by feathers. 



There are about fifteen species in this genus, distributed over the 

 southern portion of the Palsearctic Region and in the Ethiopian and 

 Oriental Regions. Two species are found in South-west Europe, and 

 a third occasionally migrates thither in winter and has wandered as far as 

 the British Islands. 



The Sand-Grouse are essentially birds of the steppes, and prefer salt- 

 plains and sandy wastes. Their flight is straight and powerful, and they 

 run on the ground with ease. They make no nest, but lay their eggs 

 (which are usually three in number, and pale brown blotched with darker 

 brown) in a slight depression in the sand-. 



* They are also a connecting-link between the Game Birds and the Plovers ; but with 

 our present ignorance of the relative value of structural characters in regard to classification, 

 it is impossible to say to which of the three families they are most nearly allied. 

 Dresser's statement, apparently prompted by his anxiety to show their relationship to 

 the Pigeons, that the young of the Pintailed Sand-Grouse " are helpless, or, at least, 

 unable to run," which he makes on the authority of Loche, is unsupported by evidence, 

 and is evidently founded on a mistranslation. 





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