194 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIII. 



middle of the day it squats about, especially if the day be hot, 

 basking in the sun, very generally scratching for itself a small 

 depression in the soil." 



" Both when feeding and taking its siesta, it is not uncommonly 

 in considerable flocks (I have seen several hundreds together) ; but 

 in summer, at any rate, it is perhaps more common to meet with 

 it in little parties of from three to twenty. Whilst feeding, it trots 

 about more rapidly and easily than its short feather-encased legs and 

 feet would lead one to suppose ; individuals continually flying up 

 and alighting a few yards farther on, and now and again the whole 

 flock rising and flying round, apparently without reason or aim." 



" Sometimes it is very shy, especially in the early mornings and 

 evenings ; and though it will not, unless repeatedly fired at, fly far, 

 it will yet not let you approach within 100 yards; but, as a rule, 

 during the heat of the day, you may walk right in amongst them. 

 They are precisely the colour of the sand when basking, and often 

 the first notice you have of their proximity is the sudden patter of 

 their many wings as they rise and dart away, and the babel of their 

 cries, which, if the flocks be a large one, is really startling for a 

 moment. Once up, they are ofl" and away with a rapidity 

 that takes a good shot, and a hard hitting gun to deal 

 with satisfactorily, but they rarely at mid-day go far , and if the 

 sun is brig lit, you may get shot after shot out of the same party 

 by following them up. 



" Early in the morning and quite at diisk they come down to the 

 water to drink , by preference to fresh water, but, as at the- Tso- 

 Khar, at times, to quite brackish water. 



" They are always noisy birds when moving about, ■ uttering a 

 call somewhat like gaik guk, to my ear, or again, as some people 

 syllable it, " yak-yak," " caga-caga," &c., &c., but they are specially 

 noisy in the evenings, when they come down to drink, and quite 

 late in the evening when wearied with the day's tramp in those high 

 regions, dinner discussed and the peaceful pipe achieved, one turns 

 in for the night, their characteristic double cry may still be heard 

 round the tents, pitched always, of course, when possible, near water." 



Mountaineer remarks that they are met with in pairs, sometimes 

 singly, and also in flocks of half a dozen or a dozen, on the hills and 

 upland plains, at from 14,000 to 17,000 ft. They lie close until 

 one gets within 50 or 100 yards, and then fly up with the usual 

 chuckle, generally alighting again at no very great distance. 



According to Blanford this " is a very noisy bird, often repeating 

 its clanging double note when on the wing. Some caged birds that 

 were given to me on the N. Frontier of Sikhim constantly uttered 

 this call. The flight is swift." 



Captain F. M. Bailey says that he found " these birds in flocks of 

 from 10 to 20 anywhere North of the Tangla from August to 



