30 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE. WORLD 
all of which are confined to Australasia. They are characterised by a huge and very beautiful 
fan-shaped crest of feathers which springs from the crown of the head. 
At the other e.xtreme stand the Namaqua and ScALY Doves. The former is regarded by 
Professor Newton as one of the most graceful in form of all the Pigeon Tribe: the latter are 
scarcely, if at all, larger than the sparrows. 
The power of flight of some forms is, however, extremely limited ; they bid fair in course 
of time to become flightless, like the dodo and the solitaire. The most interesting of these 
is the Grey-NAPED Ground-pigeon. Pigeons for the most part display a marked preference 
for a life among the trees rather than on the ground ; but there are some which are essentially 
ground-dwellers. The species in which this changed habit is- most deeply rooted, and probably 
of longest standing, exhibit one very interesting point of difference from their neighbours of 
the woods. This difference consists in the very considerably longer legs which mark the 
ground-haunting bird. The Grey-N.VPED Ground-PIGEON of South-east New Guinea forms an 
excellent example, inasmuch as the legs are much longer than in any other pigeon. These 
birds (for there are three species in all) resemble the Megapodes in habit, and frequent hills 
or dense thickets. They lay one egg, which is deposited at the foot of a tree. 
Among domesticated breeds is the English Pouter, a bird characterised by its enormous 
gullet, which can be distended with air 
whenever the owner wills. The carriage of 
the body is vertical, not, as in pigeons 
generally, horizontal. The Carrier is a breed 
illustrating the result of long-sustained selec- 
tion to increase, amongst other characters, 
the development of the bare skin surrounding 
the eye and beak of all pigeons, wild or tame. 
Inthe Short-faced Tumbler wchave abreed 
wherein those birds with the shortest beaks 
have been steadily bred from. To-day so 
little beak is left that some individuals are 
hatched which, when grown up, are unable to 
feed themselves. An example of a radical 
change in the feathers is the INDIAN Frill- 
BACK. In this case the feathers all over 
the body are reversed, or turned forwards, 
giving the bird a quite extraordinary appearance. In the Jacobin we have a breed — and we 
could cite others — wherein the feathers of the neck are much elongated, and turn upwards 
and forwards over the head to form a hood. 
In general appearance Sand-GROUSE are small, very short-legged birds, with small heads 
and pointed wings and tail. Their general tone of coloration may be described as sand- 
coloured, and this has been adopted to render them in harmony with the barren sand-wastes 
in which they dwell. But some may be described as quite highly coloured, being banded and 
splashed with chestnut, black, pearly grey, white, and yellow, according to the species. 
Pallas’s Sand-grouse is a native of the Kirghiz Steppes, extending through Central Asia to 
Mongolia and Northern China, and northwards to Lake Baikal, and southwards to Turkestan. 
Here they may be met with in enormous numbers. In North China large numbers are often 
caught after a snow-storm. The snow is cleared away, and a small green bean is scattered about. 
Young sand-grouse differ remarkably in one particular from young pigeons, inasmuch as the 
former are hatched covered with a thick dowm, and are able to run about soon after leaving 
the egg, whilst the pigeon comes into the world very helpless and much in need of clothing. 
Three eggs are laid by the sand-grouse, and these are double-spotted ; whilst the pigeon lays 
but two, which are white. The eggs of the sand-grouse are laid in a depression in the ground, 
without any nest. 
Photo by L. Medland^ F.Z.S.I * \_North Finchley 
MALE BLACK-BELLIED SAND-GROUSE 
Young sand-grouse run directly they are hatched^ thus differing from 
young pigeons 
