39 ° 
PIGEONS AND SAND-GEO USE. 
drinking, these birds thrust their bill into the water, and retain it there till their 
thirst is quenched, after the manner of pigeons. The young are covered with a close 
and beautifully patterned down, and are able to run as soon as hatched. The only 
nest is a hole scratched in the sand; and the eggs, generally three in number and 
oval in shape, are double-spotted with brown and pale violet on a ground-colour 
which is generally cream or buff, but more rarely pale red, the pale violet spots 
being more deeply imbedded in the shell than the others. The eggs are like those 
of the rails, and unlike those of the game-birds, which are always single-spotted. 
Pallas’s In this genus the first toe is absent, while the short front toes 
Sand-Grouse. are densely covered with feathers, and the central pair of tail-feathers 
are produced into long thread-like points. In Pallas’s sand-grouse (Syrrhaptes para¬ 
doxus), the first quill of each wing is greatly lengthened and attenuated at the 
extremity, but in the other species (S. tibetanus), which is a native of Tibet, these 
feathers are much less developed. Pallas’s sand-grouse has the general colour of 
the upper-parts pale buff barred with black, the breast being pale grey shading into 
dirty white, and the under-parts black. The male is distinguished by having the 
throat and a patch of feathers on each side of the neck rust-coloured, the rest of 
the head and neck uniform greyish, and a band of white feathers barred with black 
across the chest. In the female, on the other hand, the patches of feathers on the 
neck and throat are pale yellow, and the throat is bounded below by a narrow black 
band; the top of the head, back, and sides of the breast being spotted with black, 
and the band across the chest absent. The interest attaching to this bird lies in 
the incursions which it has from time to time made into Europe, more often in 
comparatively small numbers, but in the years 1863 and 1888 in enormous flocks, 
many of ’which arrived on the eastern coasts of Great Britain, and spread inland 
to nearly every county, some individuals even reaching the Scilly Islands and 
Ireland, and others the Shetlands and Faroes. The reason of these migrations is 
without any satisfactory explanation, especially as the flocks arrive in spring. 
It seems hardly probable that they could have been driven back by stress of 
weather while attempting to reach their breeding-haunts, since they are able to 
endure severe cold, and have arrived in South Siberia in the end of March. 
Black-Bellied This species (Pterocles arenarius ) represents a genus distinguished 
Sand-Grouse, by the naked feet, the presence of the first toe, and by the central pair 
of tail-feathers not being elongated. Common during the cold season in the north¬ 
western parts of India, this bird does not breed within the limits of the empire. 
It prefers the great sandy plains where water is easily accessible, but in places, 
where the rivers are too distant for it to resort to, it frequents such few tanks as 
are to be found. In the early morning ploughed land is a very favourite haunt, 
and there large numbers may be seen squatting close together and basking in the 
morning rays of the sun. Like the rest of their kind, these birds are in the habit 
of taking a midday siesta when the sun is hot, but when the weather is cold and 
cloudy they are moving about all day. They scratch about among the loose loam 
like so many hens till they have made a comfortable depression that fits them, 
and there they repose, sunning first one side and then the other, and apparently 
thoroughly enjoying the scorching heat. During their siesta they are never closely 
packed, but scattered over the ground singly or in twos and threes. 
