THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 387 



diate neighbourhood of which they are attracted by the facilities for 

 obtaining food. 



" There is little to be said about their habits ; they keep together 

 in parties of from five to fifty ; very often each flock, at any rate in 

 winter, consists of one sex only ; but occasionally I have found 

 both sexes intermingled. They trot about on the dry soil picking 

 up seeds and occasionally insects, or squat motionless sunning them- 

 selves in the early morning sun. They fly oS to drink, morning 

 and evening, often comparatively distant localities, and generally 

 comport themselves much as P. exustus and arsnarius do, but are 

 more birds of the wilderness than these. I have never seen or 

 heard of them in the enormous flocks or packs, in which the Large 

 and Pin-tail Sand-Grouse are so often seen. 



" In Jeysulmere, as Dr. Newnham informed me, and as I subse- 

 quently found, they are very abundant in the desert tracts South of 

 the capital, slightly undulating stony plains, mingled with stretches 

 of blown sand. 



" Their flight is rapid and easy, but wherever I have met with 

 them they have been less shy and easier of approach than arenarius. 

 Their note is peculiar, and has been happily described as a gurgling- 

 sound, not unlike that produced by blowing through a small tube, 

 one end of which is immersed in water. It has been syllabled as 

 quidle, quidle, quidle, and this really does recall the note to a certain 

 extent. It has appeared to me that the males of this species are 

 more peaceably inclined, and not so given to perpetually skirmishing 

 with each other as are those of arenarius. 



" Their food is mostly seeds, but I found a good many insects 

 mixed with these in the stomachs of those I examined, and they arle, 

 I infer, less purely vegetarians than the Large Sand-Grouse. 



" Whether it is on this account I cannot say ; indeed it may have 

 been only fancy, but I have always considered that the flesh of this 

 species was less dry and more palatable than that of any other Sand- 

 Grouse. Even admitting this, I can only say that alter eating 

 hundreds of Sand-Grouse of most of our Indian species, I think 

 them very poor food, only at all good when baked in a ball of clay, 

 gipsy fashion." 



Like most Sand-Grouse this particular species appears to breed 

 over a very protracted period of the year, if not all the year through. 

 Eggs, either from the oviduct or from the nest have been taken in 

 each month of the year from February up to August, the earliest 

 and latest dates being both of oviduct eggs. 



There is very little indeed on record about the nidification of thia 

 Sand-Grouse. Whittaker records " Mr. Dodson found this Sand- 

 Grouse remarkably numerous in the neighbourhood of Oumsinerma, 

 not far from the coast of the Gulf of Syrtis, and obtained several 

 specimens with tlie young and eggs of this species." 



