226 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXII. 



more than one bird gets knocked over by the same shot and that he 

 himself has once dropped three birds out of four and several times 

 two out of four and this without in any way being guilty of 

 " browning." 



The Painted Sand-Grouse appears to be almost exclusively a 

 vegetarian and the crops of those examined by Hume and others 

 have so far contained practically nothing but grain and seeds of 

 various kinds. They seem, also, to keep very much to a hard diet 

 and only one or two of my correspondents mention their indulging 

 in green food, though they undoubtedly do eat such sometimes. 

 They certainly eat White-ants — but squirrels even, as well as doves 

 and similar vegetarian eaters will all tackle and swallow them with 

 greediness — and one correspondent says that he found them feeding 

 on ants. Probably they eat small insects fairly regxilarly as they 

 come across them, though they may not go out of their way to hunt 

 for them when grain is handj^. 



Captain Heaviside records a curious habit he observed in these 

 birds in the Nerbudda Valley where he noticed them " in the even- 

 ings on the cart tracks, where they were probably dusting them- 

 selves as there is no grain traffic on these roads." 



These Sand-Grouse suffer to a certain extent from snarers and 

 bird catchers, but owing to their habits and to the fact of their not 

 going about in large flocks, they do not fall victims to anything like 

 the extent that P. arenarius and P. exustus do. Adams says that 

 " Large numbers of the Painted Grouse are taken during the rainy 

 season by bird catchers, who approaching under cover of a screen 

 made of green leaves and t^dgs, drop a circular net, suspended to a 

 hoop and held out horizontally at the end of a long bamboo, over the 

 birds, which as a rule never seem to suspect that danger is at hand." 

 The most common means adopted to snare them is by nooses 

 laid at the regular drinking places, in the same way that all the 

 other Sand-Grouse are taken. 



An excellent account of these birds in captivity is given by 

 Mr. Barnby Smith in the Avicultural Magazine who writes : 

 " The habits of the Painted Sand-Grouse were from the first 

 strikingly different from those of the Pintail. When the latter were 

 frightened their instinct was to fly, whereas the Painted Sand-Grouse 

 crouched all together in a corner as though it was their nature to 

 seek cover ; although as a fact, there was no cover there. 



" I accordingly provided them with another enclosure very similar 

 to the first, except that nearly all the floor space was covered with 

 tussocks of grass, small box bushes, dwarf juniper, etc., of course 

 with sandy spaces at intervals. I found the birds always loved to 

 lie in the sun near a tussock of grass, and would be seen to have 

 moved their position several times a day so as to get full sunshine . 

 This surprised me, as they are said to be crepuscular and nocturnal 



