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P I N T A I L E D S A N D - G R O f S E .
P te ro c le s setarius, Temm.
L e G an g a Cata.
The Pintailed Sand-Grouse is a native o f the southern portion o f Europe, the North of Africa, and the level
and arid plains o f Persia; it is also particularly abundant in Spain, Sicily, and through the whole o f the
Levant, visiting at uncertain seasons, and in small numbers, the southern provinces o f France. It is a bird
o f migratory habits, and, like its congeners, prefers wild and barren districts where the poverty o f the soil
affords but little inducement to the enterprise o f man; we are consequently unable to obtain any minute
details respecting its habits and manners. Its food consists o f seeds, insects, and the tender shoots o f vegetables.
Its nest, says M. Temminck, is constructed on the earth among loose stones and tufts o f herbage,
the female being said to lay four or five eggs, the colour o f which is unknown. Nothing can be more beautiful,
or evince more evident marks o f design, than the peculiarities which the great Author o f Nature has bestowed
upon the birds that compose the great family Tetraonida, or Grouse, as regards form and colouring in connexion
with their habits and mode o f life. They are all more or less migratory; but in those species which
nature has placed in countries where a luxuriant vegetation supplies them with abundance o f food, we find a
rounded form o f wing, and moderate power o f flight, sufficient only to enable them to pass from one pasture
or heath to another. It appears also bountifully provided by Providence, that various birds inhabiting countries
where the seasons and surface o f the earth in summer and winter present striking contrasts, should also
undergo a corresponding and analogous change o f plumage;— thus, the different species o f Ptarmigan o f the
northern parts o f Europe change their brown livery o f summer, which accords so well with the colour o f the
heathy hills they inhabit, to a pure white in winter, almost rivaling the spotless snow by which they are
then for a time surrounded. Their plumage also at this inclement season becomes thicker, and invests the
whole o f the body even to the extremity o f the toe s— I f from this we turn to the bird before us, we find an
equal provision for its wants and mode o f life, varied according to the almost opposite circumstances in which
it is placed. Not inhabiting moors or districts covered with verdure, but dwelling in extensive sandy plains,
with here and there only a patch o f scanty vegetation, and where the season and soil preserve an almost
complete uniformity o f temperature and appearance, greater powers o f flight are required and bestowed ; the
wings are elongated and pointed, to enable it to pass with facility over immense tracts in its search after food
or water, or to change its situation from one district to another; the colour o f the plumage also remains
unchanged throughout the year, that it may ever assimilate with the sandy and stony soil where nature has
fixed its abode ; the nostrils remain unconcealed, and the tarsi (although exhibiting rudiments o f down,) are
naked in comparison with the fur-clad feet o f its northern relatives. The connexion which such changes
and such modifications o f structure evince, in reference to the preservation and protection o f the species, cannot
fail to suggest themselves to the understanding, and need not be insisted on. The colours o f the male and
female o f the Sand-Grouse differ considerably. In the male, the throat is black ; the cheeks light rufous;
across the breast extends a band nearly two inches broad, o f a rufous colour, edged above and below with a
narrow black line ; the head, neck, back and scapulars olive-green; rump and tail-coverts barred with black
and yellowish ; the small and middle wing-coverts obliquely marked with chestnut and edged with white ;
greater coverts olive inclining to ash-colour, each feather being terminated by a black crescent; the whole of
the under surface o f a pure white ; the tail-feathers tipped with white; the outer one on each side edged with
white also ; the two middle feathers are long, and pass gradually into slender filaments exceeding the rest by
three inches: length between ten and eleven inches, exclusive o f the elongated tail-feathers.
In the female, the throat is white ; below this a partial collar o f black which reaches only to the sides of
the neck, with the broad orange band and black lines common to the male; the whole o f the upper part
barred with black, yellow, and ash-blue ; all the wing-coverts bluish ash ; the primaries have a band of red
and terminate with black bars ; the two elongated tail-feathers only exceed the others two inches.
Young birds differ from both parents, in having the general plumage less varied.
We have figured a male and female o f the natural size.