300 GAME-BIRDS OF INDIA 



the eggs are laid in great open plains, generally with no scrub, 

 grass or stone to shield them from the sun, the birds have to cover 

 the eggs in the heat of the day to prevent them being killed, if 

 not cooked, by the sun. l^ow and then the bird may take advantage 

 of the cover afforded by a tuft of grass or small bush, or she may 

 lay her eggs in amongst stones which partially shield them from 

 the sun, but she never makes her nest-hole in among bushes and 

 jungle as does the Painted Sand-Grouse. Hume says the haunts it 

 loves best as breeding-sites are scattered stubble or fallow, or newly- 

 ploughed fields rather than the large semi-desert plains surrounding 

 them. 



Mr. A. Anderson found them breeding in a curious place " a 

 plain covered for miles with reh (a saline effervescence) which gave 

 the ground the appearance of being carpeted with thick snow." On 

 this ground he flushed a Sand-Grouse from a pair of eggs and he 

 goes on to note " my camp being close to this place, I amused 

 myself in watching the birds incubating, feeding round about 

 their nest and dusting themselves after the fashion of fowls. On 

 the 4th as I approached the nest, the bird glided off, and skulked 

 away in a crouching position so as to avoid detection, and then 

 squatted." 



An extraordinary instance of the closeness with which this bird 

 will sometimes sit is given by Mr. Beadon, who succeeded in taking 

 photos of a sitting hen from a distance of eight feet. 



Incubation appears in India to extend over eighteen or nineteen 

 days, but may vary more than this according to the time of year in 

 which the eggs are laid. Mr. Meade- Waldo, who has been successful 

 in rearing these birds in captivity, reports (' Avicultural Magazine,' 

 March, 1913), that eggs laid in April were not hatched until the 

 twenty-third day, whereas others laid in July were hatched in 

 eighteen to nineteen days. 



In this article Mr. Meade- Waldo writes : " The procedure of 

 these birds is precisely the same as the Greater Pintailed Sand- 

 Grouse {Pteroclurus alchata), viz., the female incubates by day, the 

 male by night, and the male soaks his breast with water for the 

 young to drink or rather suck." 



As regards the eggs I have but a poor series and can add 



