lO LLOYDS NATURAl, HISTORY. 



probably Arabia, while to the north it is met with in Asia 

 Minor, Transcaucasia, and Turkestan. 



Habits. — In North-western India it is only a cold-weather 

 visitant, arriving in enormous flocks, which are said to far out- 

 number those of any other species of Sand-Grouse. It does 

 not breed in the Punjab, but takes its departure about the end 

 of March. Severtzov tells us he found it breeding in the Tian 

 Shan and Karatall ranges at elevations of from i,ooo to 4,000 

 feet, and eggs have been obtained in the neighbourhood of 

 Smyrna. Mr. Hume writes: "I have seen very little of this 

 species myself, and only on a vast plain some miles from 

 Hoti Mardan where, during the winter, they were in tens of 

 thousands. This plain is partly barren, partly fallow, atid 

 partly cultivated with wheat, mustard, and the like. It was 

 only on the barren and fallow lands that I saw them. They 

 were extremely wary, and it was only by creeping up a 7iala^ or 

 small ravine, that it was possible to get within even a long 

 shot of them. Their flight is extremely rapid and powerful : 

 to me it seemed more so than that of any of their congeners. 

 They are very noisy birds, and whether seated or flying, con- 

 tinually utter their peculiar cry." The food consists of seeds, 

 grain and green leaves, &c. ; and though some of the birds shot 

 by Mr. Hume were remarkably fat, when cooked they proved 

 dry and tasteless. Occasionally they are hawked with Shaheens, 

 and sometimes shot by working a couple of Peregrines over 

 them, when they lie very close and are easily approached ; but 

 the easiest way of capturing them is in horse-hair nooses. 



Ifest. — None ; merely a depression in the ground. 



Eggs. — Very similar to those of 6". paradoxus \ but the 

 ground-colour has a warm reddish-cream tinge, and generally 

 the markings are more profuse. 



SUB-SP. a. THE WESTERN PIN-TAILED SAND-GROUSE. 

 PTEROCLURUS PYRENAICUS. 



Pterochs pyreiiaicus^ Seeitohm, Ibis, 1883, p. 26 {ex Briss.). 



