136 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 18 



purplish-lilac or inky-grey spots, streaks, and smears having a 

 sub-surface appearance, a ittered irregularly about the surface 



of the egg." 



" Having been extracted from the body of the bird, the egg ! 

 of ours . but little gloss. It measures 1*5 by l'Oo." — Huffttf's Go 



/" i Is, Vol. I., page 55. 



met-.— THE OOEONETTED SAND GROUSE. 



Pterocles coronatus, Licht. 



The Coronetted Sand Grouse, within our limits, has only been 

 procured on the confines of Sind, and that but rarely. It is, I believe, 

 only a cold- weather visitant, but further north, in Southern Afghan- 

 i-tan, I was so fortunate as to procure two batches of eggs. 



One of these I took with my own hands, on the 30th April, 

 shooting the female bird as she left the nest, and the male bird in 

 the immediate vicinity.* The eggs, three in number, were placed in 

 a depression in the ground, scratched by the birds themselves, without 

 any attempt at concealment, in the middle of an open plain. They 

 measured 1*5 inches in length by 1*0(3 in breadth. Another clutch, 

 taken on the 27th May, was found in a precisely similar situation, 

 ' but the eggs are somewhat larger ; one of these I sent to Mr. Hume, 

 which he thus describes in Game Birth, Vol. III., page 426 : — 



" One of these eggs, taken on the 27th May * * * 



has a fine and compact shell, and a moderate amount of gloss ; the 



ound colour is a pale creamy- white, the markings, spots, moderate- 

 sized blotches and streaks, are, as usual, of two colours, a pale rather 

 washed-out yellowish-brown, and a very pale almost sepia-grey. 

 This egg measures 163 by 1*07." 



802.— THE COMMON SAND GROUSE. 



Pterocles exustus, Tern. 



The Common Sand Grouse, with the exception of Ratnagiri, occurs 

 abundantly in suitable places throughout Western India. It does 

 not affect hilly or rocky districts, nor is it found in forest or swampy 

 places. It is very partial to fallow and ploughed land. 



* Both ilicsoskius were seat by uie to the Frere IIull Museum, Karachi, 



