64 Mr. W. H. St. Quintin,


THE BREEDING OF PTEROCLES EXUSTUS.


By W. H. St. Quintin, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U.


Judging from letters and notes that have appeared in the

Avicultural Magazine , few of our members have kept the various

species of Sandgrouse, and, so far as I know, few have been

lately imported. I do not know that, except Mr. Meade-Waldo

and myself, anyone in this country has bred P. alchatus, the

Greater Pintailed Sandgrouse, and P. exusius, the Lesser Pin-

tailed Sandgrouse, I think has not been recorded hitherto as

rearing young in confinement.


I succeeded with this species this summer, and perhaps a

short account may be thought worthy of record. I have kept a

male and two females for several years, and every summer eggs

have been laid, but nothing resulted, probably because the

females interfered with each other, and generally the eggs were

unfertile.


However, a chick was hatched in 1903, but weakly, and

it did not survive more than a day or two. One year both hens

laid at the same time, and incubated, and it was curious to see

the male bird’s predicament. As many of our readers will be

aware, each parent shares in the duty of incubation, the female

by day and the male by night : although sometimes, when the

female is off feeding, the male goes on for a short time during

the day. The poor cock bird, in the case referred to, tried to do

his duty by each clutch of eggs, sometimes sitting in one nest,

and sometimes the other ; and of course the eggs got chilled and

disappointment followed. At that time I was more interested

in some other occupants of the aviary, and the Sandgrouse did

not perhaps get the attention they deserved.


However, this spring I took care that the cock and the

most vigorous-looking hen had the floor of a heated aviary to

themselves; and in due course three eggs were laid, and were

regularly and properly attended by the old birds. I was away

from home when the three chicks emerged, and did not see them

until they were several days old, and feeding nicely upon maw

seed and a mixture of grass and clover seeds. The birds

preferred the former: and here I may say that I have never

found any harm come of a free use of maw seed in the case of



