PTBBOCLUKUS SBNEGALENSIS EBLANGBEI '297 



Nestling in Down. — This is yet another of our common Indian 

 Game-Birds, the nestling of which still remains to be described. 



Distribution. — The Common Indian Sand-Grouse is found out- 

 side India only in Beluchistan, South Persia, Arabia Petrsea, the 

 extreme south of Arabia and South and South-west Palestine, being 

 replaced by allied subspecies in Africa. 



Within India it occurs practically over the whole continent in 

 suitable places and Hume thus defines its habitat : — 



" Throughout India proper, where the rainfall is moderate, the 

 soil fairly dry and the country open and tolerably level, the Common 

 Sand-Grouse abounds. Towards the east and south its general 

 distribution is much that of the Painted Sand-Grouse, though the 

 particular localities it affects are different ; but it is a western form 

 which extends into India and not a purely Indian form, and it is 

 common in places (for instance in Sind) to which P. fasciatus 

 does not extend. 



" It is a bird of the level, sparsely wooded, sandy countries, par 

 excellence, and though it may be shot in sundry plains close to hills 

 in Rajputana, unlike the Painted Sand-Grouse, it eschews hills, has 

 no liking for scrub, and absolutely avoids damp, swampy, low-lying 

 tracts, jungles and forests. 



" Bearing this in mind, it may be said that it occurs in all 

 suitable localities through the Punjab, Sind, Eajputana, the North- 

 west Provinces and Oudh, the western parts of Behar and Chota 

 Nagpore, the Central Provinces and the Central India Agency, 

 including Bundelkhand, Berar, the Nizam's Territory, the whole 

 Bombay Presidency, except the Sub-Ghat littoral, Mysore and 

 the Northern and Central portions of the Madras Presidency." 



Blanford records that he has seen this sand-grouse at Ranee- 

 gange and I have seen it in the same district of Birbhum. Dr. 

 King saw one in the Botanical Gardens, Calcutta (probably an 

 escaped bird), and Blanford, again, shot some a little to the north of 

 the Cauvery, near Trichinopoly. It does not extend to Ceylon, but 

 it is found in Travancore, whence I have received eggs. 



Colonel Faithful, in epistold, says, " about three or four years 

 ago I came across a flock of about six of the small kind of sand- 

 grouse on the Karewa at the back of Ardwin in the Phupiyan 

 direction ; these and the one I shot are the only ones I have ever 

 seen in Kashmir. The one I shot was got in the early part of 

 February." 



