SANDERSON, ROBERT (1587-1663), bishop of Lincoln, and one of the worthies celebrated by Izaak Walton, was born at Rotherham, Yorkshire, in 1587. He was educated at the grammar school of his native town and at Lincoln College, Oxford, took orders in 1611, and was promoted successively to several benefices. On the recommendation of Laud he was appointed one of the royal chaplains in1631, and as a preacher was a great favourite with the king. In 1642 Charles created him regius professor of divinity at Oxford, with a canonry of Christ Church annexed. But the civil war prevented him until 1646 from entering on the office ; and in 1648 he was ejected by the visitors whom the parliament had commissioned. He recovered these preferments at the Restoration, and was promoted to the bishopric of Lincoln, but lived only two years to enjoy his new dignities, dying in his seventy-sixth year in 1663. His most celebrated work is his Cases of Conscience, deliberate judgments upon points of morality submitted to him. Some of these cases, notably that of Sabbath observance, and that of signing the "Engagement" to the Commonwealth, were printed surreptitiously during his lifetime, though drawn up in answer to private spiritual clients ; and a collection, gradually enlarged in successive editions, was published after his death. They are extremely interesting specimens of English casuistry, distinguished not less by moral integrity than good sense, learning, and close, comprehensive, and subtle reasoning. His practice as a college lecturer in logic is better evidenced by these "cases" than by his Compendium of Logic published iu 1615. A complete edition of Sanderson's works was edited by Dr Jacobson in 1854 (Oxford Press). To this the reader may be referred for his sermons and his occasional tracts on public affairs during the troubled period of his middle life and old age.

SAND:GROUSE, the name' by which are commonly known the members of a small but remarkable group of birds frequenting sandy tracts, and having their feet more or less clothed with feathers after the fashion of GROUSE (vol. xi. p. 221), to which they were originally thought to bo closely allied, and the species first described were by the earlier systematists invariably referred to the genus Tetrao. Their separation therefrom is due to Temminck, who made for them a distinct genus which he called Pterocles,2 and his view, as Lesson tells us (Traite, p. 515), was subsequently corroborated by De Blain ville ; while in 1831 Bonaparte (Saggio, p. 54) recognized the group as a good Family, Pediophili or Pteroclidx. Further investigation of the osteology and pterylosis of the Sand-Grouse revealed still greater divergence from the normal Gallime (to which the true Grouse belong), as well as several curious resemblances to the Pigeons ; and in the Zoological Society's Proceedings for 1868 (p. 303) Prof. Huxley proposed to regard them, under the name of Pteroclomorphx, as forming a group equivalent to the Alectoromorphie and Peristeromorphte, for reasons already briefly stated (ORNITHOLOGY, VOI. xviii. p. 46).3 The Pteroclithe consist of two genera - Pterocles, with about fifteen species, and Syrrhaptes, with two. Of the former, two species inhabit Europe, P. area aria, the Sand-Grouse proper, and that which is usually called P. alchata, the Pin-tailed Sand-Grouse. The European range of the first is practically limited to Portugal, Spain, and the southern parts of Russia, while the second inhabits also the south of France, where it is generally known by its Catalan name of "Ganga," or locally as "Grandaulo," or, strange to say, " Perdrix d'Angleterre." Both species are also abundant in Barbary, and have been believed to extend eastwards through Asia to India, in most parts of which country they seem to be only winter-visitants ; but in 1880 Herr Bogdanow pointed out to the Academy of St Petersburg (Bulletin, xxvii. p. 164) a slight difference of coloration between eastern and western examples of what had hitherto passed as P. alchata ; and the difference, if found to be constant, may require the specific recognition of each, while analogy would suggest that a similar difference might be found in examples of P. arenarius. India, moreover, possesses five other species of Pterocles, of which however only one, P. fasciatvs, is peculiar to Asia, while the others inhabit Africa as well, and all the remaining species belong to the Ethiopian region - one, P. personalus, being peculiar to Madagascar, and four occurring in or on the borders of the Cape Colony.

The genus Syrrhaptes, though in general appearance resembling Pterocles, has a conformation of foot quite unique among birds, the three anterior toes being encased in a common "podotheca," which is clothed to the claws with hairy feathers, so as to look much like a fingerless glove. The hind toe is wanting. The two species of Syrrhaptes are S. tibetanus - the largest Sand-Grouse known - inhabiting the country whence its trivial name is derived, and S. paradoxus, ranging from Northern China across Central Asia to the confines of Europe, which it occaits attempts at colonization in the extreme west have 220). It appears to be the "Barguerlac " of Marco Polo (Souvenirs d'un Voyage dans la Tartarie, i. p. 244), can scarcely be anything else than this bird.

Externally all Sand-Grouse present an appearance so distinctive that nobody who has seen one of them can be in doubt as to any of the rest. Their plumage assimilates in general colour to that of the ground they frequent, being above of a dull ochreous hue, more or less barred or mottled by darker shades, while beneath it is frequently varied by belts of deep brown intensifying into black. Lighter tints are, however, exhibited by some species, - the drab merging into a pale grey, the buff brightening into a lively orange, and streaks or edgings of an almost pure white relieve the prevailing sandy or fawn-coloured hues that especially characterize the group. The sexes seem always to differ in plumage, that of the male being the brightest and most diversified. The expression is decidedly Dove-like, and so is the form of the body, the long wings contributing also to that effect, so that among Anglo-Indians these birds are commonly known as "Rock-Pigeons." The long wings, the outermost primary of which in Syrrhaptes has its shaft produced into an attenuated filament, are in all the species worked by exceedingly powerful muscles, and in several forms the middle rectrices are likewise protracted and pointed, so as to give to their wearers the name of Pin-tailed Sand-Grouse.2 The nest is a shallow hole in the sand. Three seems to be the regular complement of eggs laid in each nest, but there are writers who declare (most likely in error) that the full number in some species is four. These eggs are of peculiar shape, being almost cylindrical in the middle and nearly alike at each end, and are of a pale earthy colour, spotted, blotched, or marbled with darker shades, the markings being of two kinds, one superficial and the other more deeply seated in the shell. The young are hatched fully clothed in down (P. Z. S. 1866, pl. ix. fig. 2), and though not very active would appear to be capable of locomotion soon after birth. Morphologically generalized as the Sand-Grouse undoubtedly are, no one can contest the extreme specialization of many of their features, and thus they. form one of the most instructive groups of birds with which ornithologists are acquainted. The remains of an extinct species of Plerocles, P. sepultus, intermediate apparently between P. alchata and P. gutturalis, have been recognized in the Miocene caves of the Allier by Prof. A. Milne-Edwards (Ois. foss. de la France, p. 294, pl. clxi. figs. 1-9) ; and, in addition to the other authorities on this very interesting group of birds already cited, reference may be made to Mr Elliot 's group of the Family (P. Z. S., 1878, pp. 233-264) and Dr Gadow, "On certain points in the Anatomy of Pterocles" (op. cit., 1882, pp. 312-332). (A. N.)