THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 225 



adds that on alighting the birds " lay perfectly still for two or three se- 

 conds and then all of them commenced a rapid run down to the water." 



Mr. Adams also states that " the Painted Sand-Grouse entirely 

 leave the forests and jnngle in the early part of the rainy season and 

 then live in the open cotintry, all through the rains, exactly as 

 P. exustus does." 



Although distributed ovjer a very wide area and comparatively^ 

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

 enormous numbers that P. arenarkcs, 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. fascicdus. 

 Hume writes: "Where they are abundant they afford extremely 

 pretty shooting, and 20 to 25 brace is by no means an out-of-the- 

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

 of 7 to 10, they breakup into pairs and singles after the first shot, and 

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

 than 30 or at most 40 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 thej^ 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 

 would afford little prospects of a kill in the case of exustus. 



" Their 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 continiiall}'' 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 undoubted, though I 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 smai't than most Sand-Grouse and that they 

 are also easier to kill. Col. Fenton remarks, in e^nstola, " 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 or 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 



