SAND GEOUSE. 
223 
ing the early part of the morning ; while another species, 
the Pterocles hicinctus, drinks during the dusk of the 
evening and the early part of the niglit/^ Dr. Smith, whose 
experience as a naturalist has been gained over a wide and 
interesting field, which for many years he w^orked, has the 
following interesting remark : — " In such an arrangement 
we must admit design ; as, were all the various species to 
experience thirst at or about the same time, both delay and 
difficulty would be experienced in quenching it, since, owing 
to the general scarcity of water in the districts they inhabit, 
even as it is at present, hundreds of the same species are of- 
ten to be seen fringing the brink of a pool for hours toge- 
ther, and occasionally disputing for the first sip"^/^ Dr. 
Smith (1. c. P. variegatns) remarks that these birds fly at a 
great height and suddenly descend, w^hen they approach 
water or their feeding grounds, requiring sometimes to form 
a semicircular or circular movement before they can reach 
the spot on which they wish to alight. Dr. Smith found 
remains of grass-seeds, small bulbs, ants, and abundance of 
gravel in the stomachs of the species he examined. 
The Tinamous (TiNAMiDiE) seem in South America to re- 
* Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa, by Dr. Andrew Smith, 
vol. ii. Aves, (1840.) 
