STEPPES OP ASIA AND AMERICA 69 



Isles. The bird differs from the bustard in that water 

 is necessary to it, and it makes regular daily visits to 

 particular drinking-places. 



Very characteristic of the Asiatic steppes are the 

 birds belonging to the genus Podoces, sometimes called 

 chough-thrushes, which are members of the crow 

 alhance, though their exact position is doubtfiil. 

 Though capable of flight, they only fly with reluctance, 

 but run swiftly, feeding upon insects and seeds, and 

 nesting in bushes or sometimes on the ground. They 

 haunt the desert regions where bushes of saxaul and 

 tamarisk grow, and do not seem to drink, while the more 

 grassy regions of the steppes often swarm with the 

 Siberian lark {Mdanocorypha calandra). 



In the American prairies game birds are represented 

 by the prairie-hen {Tympanuchus americanus), a form 

 related to the grouse ; also by the sage-cock (Centro' 

 cercus urophasianus. Fig. 10), which feeds Upon ' sage- 

 brush ' {Artemisia tridentata) in the western states, just 

 as Pallas's sand-grouse feeds upon Agriophyllum in the 

 Asiatic steppes ; and by the prairie-chicken (Pedioecetes 

 phasianellus). All these can fly rapidly and powerfully, 

 but only rise when hard pressed, preferring to run along 

 the ground, or squat among the herbage, as means of 

 escaping notice. 



In the steppes of both the Old and New Worlds such 

 forms as curlews, plovers, snipe, ducks, geese, and so 

 on, with many of the smaller singing-birds, are abun-< 

 dantly represented in the breeding-season, but do not 

 show any very notable adaptations to steppe life. 



Reptiles in the steppes and adjacent deserts are not 

 numerous in species, but the individuals are often very 

 abundant. In that part of the desert of Gobi which is 

 called Alashan, lizards belonging to the genera Phryno- 



