656 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Fol. XXII. 



all. They appear never to arrive before January and all leave 

 again before April, the majority in early March. Hume says 

 of these birds : " With us they are generally met with in pairs 

 or parties of three or four, in the neighbourhood of some little 

 patch of cultivation, or where broken, rocky ground, or scrub 

 afford some kind of cover. They lie well and though they fly 

 fast enough, like all their congeners when well under weigh, rise 

 an easy shot." 



There is practicallj?- nothing else on record about this Grouse in 

 India and Blanford in his Geology and Zoology of Abyssinia gives 

 the best description extant of the habits of this little Sand-Grouse 

 (p. 4l9 et seq. ) : " This bird has precisely the same habits as the 

 closely allied Ft. fasckdus of India. It is rarely if ever seen on open 

 sandy plains ; like Ft. exustus, it keeps to bush and thin tree jungle, 

 and is usually found solitary, in pairs, or at the most two or three 

 pairs together. I once came upon a considerable flock in January, 

 and possibly at that time these birds may collect in large numbers ; 

 but in May, June, July and August, it was rare to see more than 

 four together, except about watering-places. When distin-bed, the 

 Sand-Grouse rises with a sharp cackling cry, aSbrding a very 

 difiicult shot. It does not rise high, and usually settles again after 

 a short flight. All kinds of Pterocles, as is well known, fly to 

 water at particular hours in the day, the hours varying with differ- 

 ent species. Pt. exustus drinks about 9 a. m. and 4 p. m. In the 

 present case the drinking hours are at daybreak in the morning, 

 and at dusk in the evening, as is also the case with the Indian 

 Pt. fasckdus, the crepuscular habits of which are mentioned by 

 Jerdon, (' Birds of India', vol. ii, p. 498), and have been noticed by 

 myself also. In the semi-desert country West and North- West of 

 Massowah, in which Pt. U'chtensteini abounds, and there are but 

 few places where water is found, the scene at each spring of an 

 evening after a hot day especially is very interesting. At Saati, 

 Ailat, and Ain, there was a constant rush of these birds from sunset 

 till dark, and again in the morning before sunrise. Singly and 

 in small flocks, uttering their peculiar 'queep-queep' like note, they 

 flew up and down the watercoui-se on their way to and from the 

 water, keeping only a few feet above the bushes and low trees ; the 

 noise of their wings being heard in the dusk before the birds 

 themselves appeared. Like all other Sand-Grouse, they are excel- 

 lent eating, the flesh being rather hard but of delicious flavour ; 

 and our party used generally to shoot a few each evening, not an 

 easy matter, for the great swiftness and power of wing possessed 

 by these birds rendered them, in the dusk especially, by no means 

 an easy shot." 



" Pt. Ikhtensteini appears entirely confined to the tropical coast 

 region. At some water in the Lebka Valley at Mohabar, only 



