NESTING IN WESTERN 1X1> 



common in Kanara, and below I tats, but it is shy, 



' hauiil a rule thick i jungles. It, however, has a 



g on the road sing through the jungle, and on 



; pair or so will be seen every half mile. It is a 



jidont, but I have n< t the nest, though one bird 



I shot in February would have laid in a couple of days." 



799.— THE LARGE OR BLACK-BELLIED SAND GROUSE. 



Ptero 'narius I '■■■ 



During the winter mouths, the Large Sand Grouse occurs in Siud, 

 ■id Rajputana. Speaking generally, they are not uncom- 

 mon in the more northern portions of Western India, becoming more 

 ;re rare towards the central parts, and quite disappearing from 

 the l. No satisfactory evidence of their breeding within the 



Presidency exists, though birds have occasionally been shot as late 

 as the middle of May. 



One I procured on the plains of Meani, near Hydrabad, Sind, 

 on the 20th of that month, had the ovaries much developed, and 

 I believe that the eggs would have been laid in ten or twelve days. 

 I saw a pair, but could only procure the female. Further north, in 

 Southern Afghanistan, on the plains between Chaman and Gatai, I 

 found them breeding plentifully during May and June. The eggs, 

 three in number, were placed in a small depression in the soil, 

 soral 1 ■ fche birds themselves. They are of a long cylindrical 

 shape, obtuse at each end. The shell is compact, firm, and glos 

 The ground colour is a very pale green or greenish- white (those in my 

 collection have now faded to a pale drab or stone colour); they arc 

 covered more or less thickly with spots and blotches of pale -yellowish 

 and purplish-grey. 



Mr. Hume, to whom I sent an egg, lias thus described it : — 



" The egg is a very elongated, cylindrical, dumpy, sausage-like egg, 

 the shell is extremely fine and compact, and has a fine gloss. The 

 ground colour is a very pale green or greenish-white, and it is mode- 

 rately thickly studded with irregular spots and small blotches, more 

 or less streaky in shape, of a rather pale yellowish-brow.il, and very 

 pale, slightly purplish-grey. It measures 1*84 inches in length, by 

 rather more than 1*35 in breadth. 



