3.34 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1890. 

 800. —THE PAINTED SAND GROUSE. 



Pterocles fusciatus, Scop^ 



With the exception of Sind in the north and Ratnagiri in the 

 south, the Painted Sand Grouse occurs, more or less rarely, in suitable 

 localities throughout the rest of the Presidency. It affects thin scant 

 jungle at the foot of low rocky hills ; they are, I believe, permanent 

 residents where they occur, breeding as a rule during April and 

 May, but eggs are occasionally found during the cold season. 



They scratch a slight depression in the soil, under the shelter of a 

 tuft of grass, and in this, without any lining, they lay two or three 

 eggs, of an elongated shape, rounded at both ends, measuring 1*4 

 inches in length, by about 0*98 in breadth ; they are of a glossy pink- 

 ish-fawn or pale salmon colour, speckled, spotted, and streaked with 

 brownish-red and clouds of pale inky-purple intermingled. 



To this, Mr. Davidson adds the following : — 



" I would hardly call this bird common anywhere. It does not, 

 I think, occur in Kanara or the Konkan. It is, I think, a very local 

 bird everywhere, restricted to low scrub jungle. I know of its occur- 

 rence in one or two places in the Poona district ; I have met with it at 

 only two places during the four years I was in Sholapur. In West 

 Khandeish and some parts of the north-east of Nassick it was moder- 

 ately common, but that would only mean that perhaps five or six pairs 

 would be seen in a morning's beating. I think it breeds pretty well 

 at all seasons, except the three heavy rain months, July, August and 

 September, and out of some fifteen or twenty nests I must have seen, 

 almost all contained three eggs. I have taken eggs in the Khandeish 

 and Nassick districts in October, December, January, February, 

 March and May, up to the very end of the month." 



801.— THE LARGE PIN-TALL hlD GROUSE. 

 Pt 'crocks alclmia, Liu. 



The Large Pin -tailed or White-bellied Sand Grouse is confined to 

 Sind, and even there is not common, I have only met with it at 

 Jeempeer, between Hyderabad and Karachi. 



further north in Southern Afghanistan it occurs m immense 

 flocks, 



