146 INDIAN SPOETING BIEDS 



drinking place. Owing to their speed they afford good sport, 

 but, as Hume says, it is cruel to wait for them at both drink- 

 ing times where water is scarce. They cannot apparently go 

 very long without a drink, if they miss one in the morning; 

 but when brutally scared off again they will leave the neighbour- 

 hood, even if they have eggs close by. 



This may be the case in suitable localities at almost any time 

 of year, for this species is a resident and has a very extended 

 breeding season, though in the North-west April to June are 

 the usual months. Both sexes care for the eggs and young, 

 the cocks sitting by night and the hens by day, and although 

 the chicks pick for themselves, water is brought for them by the 

 male parent, who soaks his breast feathers in it and lets the 

 chicks suck it off. This no doubt accounts for Hume seeing 

 the birds washing, as he thought, at their drinking places ; the 

 habit of thus watering the young, which has been discovered in 

 recent years by people who have bred sand-grouse in aviaries, 

 was not then known. In the ordinary way, dusting rather than 

 washmg is the sand-grouse custom, so when birds are seen 

 wetting their plumage at the drinking places it may be suspected 

 that they have young somewhere near, and no shooting should 

 be done. 



The eggs are laid in a scrape on the ground, occasionally 

 with a scanty lining, and are usually two, rarely more or fewer. 

 They are of long shape and blunt at both ends — this peculiar 

 form of egg being characteristic of the eggs of the sand-grouse 

 family — and the ground-colour varies, being greyish - white, 

 pinkish stone-colour, cream, or olive-brown. The spots are 

 dark brown and dull mauve, their intensity and amount varying 

 very much. 



These sand-grouse sleep at night on the ground, like all the 

 group, selecting some open place, and Hume remarks on their 

 extreme watchfulness. They pack closely at such times, not 

 scattering as they do during the noonday siesta, and no doubt 

 find that " many heads are better than one " in the matter of 

 keeping a look-out ; at any rate, they seem never to fall into the 

 clutches of the ordinary four-footed vermin, though native 

 fowlers catch them sometimes. 



