■286 GAME-BIRDS OF INDIA 



401 X 33-3 mm. ; minima 39-6 X 28-3 mm., and 461 X 

 28-0 mm. 



General Habits. — When in India it asseml:)les in enormous flocks, 

 literally in thousands, and in the more eastern portion of its habitat 

 this seems to be generally the case, indeed some people consider 

 this sand-grouse to have been the quail provided for the Israelites ; 

 further west, however, it does not seem to collect in nearly such 

 large flocks. 



Hume is the only writer who has given us an account of this 

 bird's habits in India and his remarks are to the following effect : — 



" 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, 

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

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

 extremely wary, and it was only by creeping up a nala 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 of any of their congeners. 



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

 tinually utter their peculiar cry, which, though somewhat of the 

 same character as that of arenarius, is unmistakably distinct from 

 the call note of any of the other species. 



" Those I shot, and, according to their account, most of the 

 large series previously shot by my collectors, had led entirely on 

 green leaves, seeds, small pulse, and grain of different kinds. The 

 gizzards contained quantities of small stones. There were several 

 pools and places where the rain floods had not quite dried up, on the 

 plain I have referred to, and the birds seemed to sit aliout much in 

 their immediate neighbourhood. 



" One or two of my birds were very fat, so much so that it was 

 difficult to skin them, but as a rule, when cooked they were as dry 

 and tasteless as the rest of the Sand-Grouse. 



" I was told that they were occasionally hawked with Shaheens, 

 ))ut their flight is so rapid and powerful that I should doubt much 

 sport being obtained this way. I was also told that they could be 

 shot by working a couple of Peregrines over them, when they allow 

 a very close approach and almost refuse to rise." 



This account agrees well with Whitaker's account of these birds 

 in Tunis as seen by him at one of their favourite watering-places. 

 He says : — 



