68 STEPPE FAUNAS AND TEMPERATE 



As examples of steppe birds, we may name first the 

 bustards, of which the largest form, the great bustard 

 {Otis tarda), has been compared in build and habits to 

 the ostrich of the Saharan desert. Bustards, though 

 good fliers, are fleet of foot, and show a preference for 

 open country. They do not seem to drink, and take 

 both animal and vegetable food. In addition to the 

 form mentioned, the little bustard {0. tetrax) and the 

 ruffed or Macqueen's bustard {Hubara undulata) also 

 occur, the latter preferring running to flying, and 

 having the habit, common among steppe animals, of 

 squatting down when undisturbed, so as to take fuU 

 advantage of its protective coloration, but stretching 

 itself to its (considerable) height on an alarm in order 

 to increase the range of vision over the plain. 



Pheasants, which are bush-haunting birds, just enter 

 the region, but PaUas's sand-grouse (Syrrhaptes para- 

 doxus) is characteristic, both the young and the adult 

 showing a dehcately patterned type of coloration which 

 is eminently fitted to conceal them in their natural 

 habitat. The young are precocious, being able to run 

 as soon as hatched. This is necessary in birds whose 

 eggs are laid in a mere depression scratched in the 

 loose soil. In the steppes the bird is said to feed chiefly 

 on the seeds of a member of the Chenopodiaceae called 

 AgriophyUum, and it assembles in large flocks in places 

 where this plant of the salt wastes is abundant. The 

 plant is also reUshed by horses and camels, and its 

 seeds are used as food by the nomads as well as by the 

 sand-grouse. The sand-grouse shares with many steppe 

 animals the peculiarity of being periodically very 

 abundant, when it makes incursions on lands adjacent 

 to its normal habitat. Flocks of it have appeared at 

 various times in Europe, reaching even the British 



