748 
BIRD-LIFE. 
beautifully built, varied in colouring, noisy, impetuous, 
and restless in its character. 
The different species of Sand Grouse seem to form a 
link between the Pigeons and the Gallinaceous birds. 
They possess the small beak, sharp-pointed wings, and 
loose plumage, of the Pigeons, whilst their colours are 
often varied and very beautiful; the head, feet and tail 
resemble those of the Partridges : they partake, however, 
so much of both families as to seem a veritable cross 
between the two, so to speak. The colouring of the 
plumage is one dependent on the laws of necessity, and 
is, on this account, more or less uniform in character. 
The upper part of the breast is—with the male usually, 
and almost always in the case of the female—of isabel 
colour, merging sometimes into a grayish tinge, at others 
into a pale yellow; the lower portion is often black. This 
ground-work of colouring is varied and beautified in many 
ways, by bands, stripes, blotches, spots, small streaks, and 
fine undulating lines. Decorative plumes are also not 
wanting, for the centre tail-feathers often attain an 
immense length; in short, our friends, the Sand Grouse, 
are extraordinary beings. They all, however, bear the 
impress of the desert in so marked a manner, that anyone 
who has seen one species can generally immediately 
recognize any other as a desert bird. 
In Europe, indeed in Central and Southern Spain, two 
species of Sand Grouse are to be met with, both remark¬ 
able for size and beauty; as in Africa, they are birds of 
passage, which continent must be regarded as their true 
home. One of these species bears to this day its Arabian 
name (Pterocles alchata); the other, the Sand Grouse 
par excellence (Pterocles arenarius), is widely distributed 
throughout all the south of Europe; on one occasion, 
