PTEROCLES ORIENTALIS 247 



on in unusually cold winters as late as the beginning or middle 

 of April. 



Within its favourite haunts, i.e., all round the extreme north- 

 east of the Indian habitat this bird is extremely numerous and may 

 often be seen in hundreds and sometimes in thousands. Hume 

 on one occasion, in Jodhpore, came upon a group of these birds, which 

 he estimated to contain fully two thousand, which were packed 

 together in a mass not more than thirty yards long by about ten 

 wide, and so densely were they lying that, though he could not get 

 within eighty yards of them, he dropped three birds by firing into 

 the mass as they rose. 



The same author narrates how when driving between Fazilka 

 and Ferozepur he saw, during the fifteen miles' drive, over 100 packs 

 of these birds crossing the road, these packs varying from four or 

 five in number to nearly a thousand. 



They keep very much to the larger sandy wastes or plains so 

 numerous in this part of India, and though they prefer such as are 

 within reasonable flight of the larger rivers, to which they resort to 

 drink, they are often found at great distance from any water. When 

 there are no rivers near enough, they will then drink at the nearest 

 tank and even at quite small ponds or pools. 



Hume thus describes the kind of country most frequented by this 

 Sand-Grouse. He says : — 



" I have but seldom met with them on stubbles (though they 

 affect these a good deal, I hear, in some parts of the country), or in 

 any ground under crop, nor have I ever found them on or about the 

 more or less scrub-clad bases of the low hills, so common in 

 Eajputana. Wide, open sandy plains are their favomite resorts ; 

 and, thougli they do sometimes feed on bare ploughed lands, it is 

 rare to find them on these, except when basking in the early morning 

 or when taking their mid-day siesta. This, like aU the Sand-Grouse, 

 they always take when the sun is hot, though on cold, cloudy, gloomy 

 days, they are moving the whole day. They bustle about in the sand 

 or loose loam, like old hens, until they have worked out a depression 

 that fits them, and then in this they sit a little on one side, first with 

 one wing a little under them and the uppermost one a little opened, 

 and then, after a time, they shift over to the other side, so as to give 

 the other wing its turn of grilling. During their siesta they are 

 never closely packed ; they are scattered about irregularly, one here, 

 two or three there, and so on ; and though at this time you may 



