•262 GAME-BIRDS OF INDIA 



common in many parts of it, nowhere does this bird appear in the 

 enormous numbers that P. arcnarlus, P. exustus, and P. alchata 

 do, consequently the huge bags which are sometimes made of these 

 Sand-Grouse are never equalled by the bags made of P. fasciatus. 

 Hume writes : — 



" Where they are abundant they afford extremely pretty shooting, 

 and twenty to twenty-five brace is Ijy no means an out-of-the-way 

 bag for two good guns. Even though at first flushed in parties of 

 seven to ten, they break up into pairs and singles after the first shot, 

 and lie well. I have never seen them wild or rise at greater 

 distances than thirty or at most forty yards, and very often they 

 whir up within a few feet. They rise with a chuckling chirp, fly 

 low, and soon alight again, however, running a considerable distance 

 after they have alighted. They run extremely well, compared with 

 other Sand-Grouse, as I have repeatedly noticed when standing 

 above whilst others were shooting below. For a moment I have 

 often mistaken them for grey partridges. 



" Although their flight is strong and tolerably fast, they offer an 

 easy shot, and can be dropped with charges, and at distances, that 

 \YOuld afl'ord little prospects of a kill in the case of cxiistHs. 



" Tlieir plumage is very delicate, and half the feathers of the 

 back and breast are often knocked out by the fall when they are 

 shot. The aural orifices are very large, and being only partially 

 covered with feathers of which the webs are very far apart, are 

 conspicuous ; but the birds do not appear to hear particularly well, 

 or if they do, they are very tame or stupid, for they continually rise 

 at one's feet, and if much disturbed lie so close that they are almost 

 as hard to raise as button quail. 



" Their crepuscular habits are luidoubted, though 1 cannot say 

 that I myself have often noticed them after dusk." 



Nearly all sportsmen agree with Hume in considering that they 

 are far less wild and smart than most Sand-Grouse and that they 

 are also easier to kill. Colonel Fenton remarks, in epistold, " when 

 flushed they do not fly very far before pitching again. By marking 

 them down and flushing them again one can go on shooting at them 

 over and over again, until one and all the birds in a covey are 

 bagged. " Lieut. Pythian-Adams says just the same, and Jerdon, 

 Thompson, Adams, and other writers all give similar accounts. 



Mr. Bridgeman points out that these grouse when flying keep much 

 closer together than the other species do, so that frequently more than 

 one bird gets knocked over by the same shot, and that he himself has 



