ˈsand-grouse
[sand n.2]
Any bird of the group Pteroclomorphæ, inhabiting sandy tracts of the old world, consisting of two genera Pterocles (esp. P. arenarius, the Sand-grouse proper, and P. alchata, the Pin-tailed Sand-grouse) and Syrrhaptes.
| 1783 Latham Gen. Synopsis Birds IV. 751 Sand Grouse. Tetrao arenaria. This is bigger than the Partridge. 1864 Intell. Observer IV. 197 The new British Sand-Grouse. (Pallas's Three-toed Sand-Grouse—Syrrhaptes paradoxus.) 1867 A. L. Adams Wand. Naturalist India 119 The painted or lesser sand-grouse (Pterocles fasciatus). 1895 J. G. Millais Breath fr. Veldt (1899) 29 In the early morning the Namaqua sandgrouse come to their margins..to drink. |