which are all comparatively weak), and
approaches almost to the strength of that of the
grouse, while the nostrils still remain uncovered.
It is found in the north of Africa, in Spain,
and some of the southern provinces of France,
frequenting, perhaps, more the Landes, where
there is a greater proportion of herbage. The
nest is made among loose stones or scanty
herbage, and the eggs are only four or five in
number."

Most, if not all, the pretty strangers who have
visited us during the past summer have been
Asian and African species: and one of the most
curious of all birds, for Serrhaptes paradoxus has
not feet like any bird. The savans have, indeed,
called it paradoxical, as if they wished thereby
to let the peculiar little bird know that it holds
some quite new and unorthodox tenets on the
subject of feet. Such, however, is the present
loose condition of ornithological opinion, that
this heretical tendency will, I fear, be deemed
rather a recommendation than an objection.
As if the bird had some ridiculous Chinese
notions in its head, the feet are very small.
There is no hind spur. The legs and feet
are covered with feathers and thick down to
the very nails of the claws. There is no division
between the claws, which are not separated,
but joined close together. They are certainly
more like the feet of a mammal than those of
a bird; some describers compare them to the
feet of a hedgehog, and others to the feet of a
rat. The footprint, as I have already said, is
like that of a rat. The skins of the soles of the
feet are rough, hard, horny, and serrated, like
scaly armour, or like the surface of a rasp. Such
feet are well adapted for running on the burning
hot sands of Africa and Asia, the united
claws letting no sand get between them, and the
horny soles, like the blacksmith's hand, resisting
heat.

Little or nothing appears to be known of their
nests. Some species are said to lay only a few
eggs, and their young, it is reported, remain
long in the nest after being hatched. The
banded sand grouse (Pterocles arenarius) is said
to make her nest among stunted brush, laying
only four or five eggs.

The seeds of milk vetch (astragalus) are said
to be in the season the principal food of this
species. The food found in the crops of the
species which have visited us this summer
consisted of red clover, grass, tares, and
common plaintain seeds. When found in the gizzard,
the seeds were of course found half ground
(the fine word is comminuted), by the grinding
of half-transparent gravel stones scarcely bigger
than the seeds themselves.

Dr. Andrew Smith, in his Illustrations of the
Zoology of South Africa, gives us some glimpses
of these birds in their African homes. He found
the remains of grass seeds, bulbs, and ants, in
their gizzards. The different species have
different times and ways of visiting their feeding-
grounds and drinking-places. The variegated
pin-wings (Pterocles variegatus) fly very high and
early in the morning, descending suddenly, and
sometimes spirally, to reach the spot they seek.
The two-banded pin-wings (Pterocles bicinctus)
fly in the dusk of the evening to their watering-
places. The guttural pin-wings (Pterocles
gutturalis) fly regularly to the watering-places at
fixed hours—ten in the morning and three in
the afternoon. "In such an arrangement," says
Dr. Andrew Smith, "we must admit design, as
were all the various species to experience thirst
at or about the same time, both delay and
difficulty would be experienced in quenching it,
since, owing to the general scarcity of water in the
districts they inhabit, even as it is, at present
hundreds of the same species are often to be
seen fringing the brink of a pool for hours together,
waiting, and occasionally disputing, for the
first sip."

How far these grouse agree with other grouse,
or differ from them, in their habits, no one can
tell. The probability is that they are as peculiar
in their habits and instincts as they are
peculiar in their structure and appearance. Odd
looks, odd ways. How do they manage their
love affairs? Does the cock sing a love-song,
like the capercaillie, calling "peller, peller,
peller," until the hens of his harem come croaking
"gock, gock, gock?" Like the black grouse,
does he crow for his wives and win them by a
melody which has been compared to the whetting
of a scythe? Are there fierce cock-fights
on these occasions, and does the victory decide
the question of who is to be followed by the
hens? For all nature is of the opinion of the
poet in the Ode to Alexander:

                    None but the brave,
                    None but the brave
                    Deserve the fair.

There is, indeed, a species, of grouse, the ruffed
American grouse, who calls his favourite to him
by swelling his body and beating himself with
his wings until he produces a sound like
drumming:

And there is ne'er a hen, be she ever so glum,
But will spruce up her feathers and follow the drum.

The habits, the nests, the eggs, and the
peculiarities, of the sand grouse, are matters the
discovery of which challenges the zeal and
courage of observers. Meanwhile, the question
has been raised what ought to be done with the
coveys of these extraordinary birds which visit
the British islands. When numbers of male
and numbers of female birds fly separately,
they are called packs (male and female packs),
and when both sexes fly together in small
numbers they are called coveys, and in large
numbers flocks; some birds occasionally fly in
armies. The sand grouse of this summer have
all been coveys. What, then, ought to be done
with these coveys? Ought they to be killed
for the table? They possess "gastronomic
virtues," according to the phrase of a gentleman,
who has eaten them, and who liked their flesh,
and praised them as virtuous birds accordingly.
Now, it may be all very well to eat them in
countries where armies of such birds are seen