A history of the birds of Europe, not observed in the British Isles (1862) (14727687236)

Identifier: historyofbirdsof03bree (find matches)
Title: A history of the birds of Europe, not observed in the British Isles
Year: 1862 (1860s)
Authors: Bree, Charles Robert, 1811-1886
Subjects: Birds Birds
Publisher: London, Groombridge and Sons
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library



Text Appearing Before Image:
26 GALLINÆ. Family TETRAONIDÆ. (Bonaparte.) Genus Pterocles. ( Temminck) SAND GROUSE. Pterocles arenarius. Pterocles arenarius, Temminck. Tetrao arenarius, Pallas. Perdix Aragonica, Latham. Oenas arenarius, Vieillot. Ganga unibande, Of the French. Eingel-Jtughuhn, Of the Germans. Ganga, Savi. Specific Characters.—Only one band across the thorax; abdomenblack. Tail wedge-shaped, and without any elongation of themiddle feathers. Length of male thirteen inches; carpus to tipnine inches; beak eight lines; tarsus one inch and a quarter. The Sand Grouse inhabits trie south of Europe,more especially Spain. It occurs also in Sicily, andoccasionally in Italy and Germany; more rarely stillin New Russia and the Caucasus. It is found onlyaccidentally and as a straggler in Greece. Like thepreceding species it is a bird of the desert, and is athome in the sandy plains of Northern Africa andEastern Asia. In the Eastern Atlas Mr. Salvin tellsus it occurs in the same localities as P. alchata, but
Text Appearing After Image:
SAND GROUSE. 227 is also found about Djendeli and Madracen, where thatbird is not found. Mr. Tristram says that though lessabundant than Alchata, P. arenarius occurs universallythroughout the Sahara, excepting in the extreme south,where it is replaced by P. Senegalus. Dr. LcithAdams informs me that it occurs plentifully in Persia,Afghanistan, and Northern India, where it is knownto English sportsmen either as Sand Grouse or RockPigeon. He further adds, It frequents dry aridwastes, and is usually met with in flocks; although inrequest as a game bird its flesh is tough, and devoidof good flavour. The call is a rough guttural sound,resembling tuturuk repeated. The following interesting account of the Sand Grouseis taken fro in Mr. Tristrams paper on the Ornithologyof Northern Africa, (Ibis, vol. ii, p. 69:)—There ismuch of the Plover character in the flight and mannerof this tribe; and the first time I observed a covey onthe wing I took them for some large Plovers untilwithin shot. The