PTEEOCLURUS SENEGALENSIS BRLANGERI 301 



nothing to what Hume has recorded in 'Game-Birds.' Here he 



describes them as follows : — 



" The eggs, like those of all other Sand-Grouse, are long and 

 cylindrical, like those of a Night Jar. The texture is fine and 

 smooth, and they have generally a fine gloss. Not only in shape, 

 but in marking also, do many of them strongly resemble those of 

 some species of Night Jar. The ground colour varies much ; in 

 some it is pale, somewhat pinkish stone colour, in others greyish or 

 dingy or greenish white ; in some pale cafe-au-lait, in others a some- 

 what light olive-brown. Typically they are thickly spotted, streaked 

 or irregularly blotched pretty uniformly over the whole surface, with 

 two sets of markings, the one of darker or lighter shades of olive 

 brown, the other a sort of pale inky purple, and these latter, which 

 are most commonly streaks and clouds, seem to underlie the others. 

 Different eggs vary much in the distribution, size and intensity of 

 these markings, as also in the relative proportion of the extent of 

 surface covered respectively with v?hat I may caU the primary and 

 secondary markings : in some almost the whole ground colour not 

 occupied by the primary markings is clouded with the pale inky 

 purple, in others only here and there a few spots of this colour are 

 traceable ; in some all the markings are small, very thickly set and 

 freckled, in others they are bold, large, eccentrically shaped blotches, 

 comparatively thinly distributed over the surface. Some of the eggs 

 are, as a whole, very much darker coloured than others, and in some 

 the ground colour might perhaps be best described as a faintly 

 greenish grey. As a rule the paler the ground, the paler the 

 markings, and vice versa. Exceptionally beautiful marbled eggs are 

 met with, as also unmottled pale creamy varieties. 



" I have never, however, seen one that could be taken for an 

 egg oi fasciatus. 



" The eggs vary in length from 132 to 1'6 inches and in breadth 

 from 0'93 to I'll ; but the average of seventy eggs is 1'4:5 by 103." 



Eeducing Hume's figures to millimetres, we get respectively 

 33-6 to 40'5, 23-2 to 28-2 and 36-8 by 26-2. 



Gates gave the measurements in breadth of the eggs in the 

 British Museum as running up to 1'15 inches (= 292 mm. and the 

 average of 129 eggs in that Museum, added to 102 other eggs of 

 which I have obtained the measurements, is exactly the same as 

 that given by Hume. 



It is not possible ever to confound these eggs with those of the 

 Painted Sand-Grouse (P. indicus) for these latter are always salmon, 

 bright-buff or pink in general tone, whereas those of the Common 



