sand grouse

or sandgrouse


noun
  1. any of several birds of the family Pteroclididae inhabiting sandy areas of the Old World, resembling both pigeons and shorebirds and having precocial young.

Origin of sand grouse

1
First recorded in1775–85

Words Nearby sand grouse

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use sand grouse in a sentence

  • The nesting season of the various species of sand-grouse that breed in India is now beginning.

  • The doves were reported as sand-grouse, and certainly come flighting in from the desert very much in the s.-g.

    Letters from Mesopotamia | Robert Palmer
  • White wagtails appeared in great numbers a few weeks ago, and sand-grouse are reported in vast numbers further north.

    Letters from Mesopotamia | Robert Palmer
  • Crossing this, nearly knee-deep in mud and water in many parts, we fell in with three packs of Sand-Grouse (Pterocles alchata).

  • An example of how this may occur is illustrated by the sporadic excursion into Europe of Pallas sand-grouse.

    Evolution in Art | Alfred C. Haddon

British Dictionary definitions for sandgrouse

sandgrouse

/ (ˈsændˌɡraʊs) /


noun
  1. any bird of the family Pteroclididae, of dry regions of the Old World, having very short feet, a short bill, and long pointed wings and tail: order Columbiformes

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012