PIN- TAILED SAND GROUSE. 133 



The Pin-tail Sand Grouse occurs in sandy plains and uncultivated 

 grounds, avoiding as much as possible the habitations of men. M. 

 Crespon however tells us that he succeeded in taming it in confinement, 

 and he had specimens in his aviary for several years, and even bred 

 them. The male appeared very attentive to its mate, whose voice it 

 readily responded to in syllables resembling 'kaak, kaak, kaak, ka, 

 ka, ka.' 



In the desert, however, it is very wild. Canon Tristram says, 

 ^'except daring the breeding-season it is very difficult of approach; 

 and when packed in winter it is vain to attempt to get a second 

 shot, unless well mounted. Its flight is stronger and more vigorous 

 than its congeners; and its sharp-pointed long wings give it all the 

 appearance of a Plover. It is very garrulous when on the ground, 

 and often betrays itself by its call-note, long before it can be dis- 

 tinguished by the eye from the surrounding sand." 



According to Eversmann its voice resembles that of Ravens and 

 Crows. It makes no nest, but scrapes a hole in the sand, in which, 

 Mr. Salvin tells us, it deposits only three eggs, which are laid 

 in May, and the young are hatched in about the second week of 

 June. Degland says it lays four or five, Teraminck two or three 

 eggs. The egg is described by Canon Tristram as perfectly elliptical 

 in all the five species he possesses of the genus Pierocles. It is of 

 a much richer fawn-colour than that of P. arenarius, " covered and 

 sometimes zoned with large maroon-red blotches." 



Canon Tristram says that the Pin-tail Sand Grouse is very bad 

 eating, the flesh, like that of its congener, being both poor and 

 dry. Mr. E. C. Taylor, however, does battle upon this point, (Ibis, 

 vol. ii., p. 199,) where he says that it all depends upon the cook, 

 aiid that in Egypt he found the two species of Sand Grouse, P. 

 cxustus and P. senegalensis, "very good eating, the flesh of the thigh 

 especially being peculiarly white and tender. However our Dragoman 

 was an artist of no ordinary culinary skill." 



It is almost a pity, however to talk about anything so sensuous 

 as a dinner ofl" a bird so beautiful as the Pin-tailed Sand Grouse. 

 Canon Tristram, whose experience as a practical ornithologist is very 

 great, says, "I think, on close inspection, there is scarcely a bird in 

 nature which surpasses the male P. alchata in richness of colouring 

 or delicacy of pencilling" — a fact which I am sure my artist will 

 verify with his usual skill. 



The adult male has the head, nape, and back, a beautiful rich 

 dead olive green, more or less shaded with darker, each feather being 

 edged narrowly with black or blackish. The upper tail coverts rich 



