390 Mr. A. L. Butler on the 



In any considerable "bag" of Sand-Grouse some examples 

 of this species are always to be found, but among, perhaps, 

 five hundred which I have at different times looked over I 

 do not think that they amounted to more than five or six 

 per cent. 



291. Pterocles quadricinctus Temm. 



a. $. R. Sobat, March 1, 1901. 



b. % . E. Setit, May 1903. 



This handsome Sand-Grouse seems to be entirely a bird of 

 the black cotton-soil and thorn-scrub, and does not appear 

 to occur on the sandy deserts at all. It does not range so far 

 north as the other species, nor have I ever seen it in anything 

 approaching the same quantities. It is, however, tolerably 

 common in the bush on the White Nile, Sobat, and Bahr-el- 

 Ghazal, and on the Blue Nile, Rahad, Dinder, Atbara, and 

 Setit. It is generally met with among thorn-trees, in pairs 

 or small parties. Unlike the other species, this bird goes in 

 flights to the water at, or just after, sunset. 



I found it breeding in fair numbers on the Dinder in 

 March 1903. On the 19th, while tracking up a wounded 

 bull buffalo, I came on a nest containing two tiny young in 

 down — pretty little blackish - brown things marked with 

 whitish lines. On the 20th I took a clutch of three fresh eggs, 

 and on the 24th another clutch of three, slightly incubated. 



It might be supposed that the pinkish colour of the eggs of 

 this bird would render them conspicuous on the black cotton- 

 soil on which they are laid. As a matter of fact, all that 

 I saw were deposited among the scattered fallen leaves of a 

 species of Bauhinia (Camel's Foot Tree) which dry to exactly 

 the same clay-pink as the eggs, and among these leaves they 

 are very difficult to detect. 



Besides the species mentioned here I have seen, in the 

 valleys among the Shabluka Hills, a Sand-Grouse which I 

 think must be Pterocles coronatus Licht. 



292. Otis senegalensis Vieill. 



a. S . Mazrub Wells, May 3, 1904. 



This Bustard inhabits the red-sand country of Kordofan. 



