PTEROCLES. 363 



never four, as stated by Jerdon. As a rule, there is no attempt at 

 anything liise a nest, the eggs being deposited in a slight depression 

 on the bare ground, scraped out by the birds most frequently in 

 an extensive plain. 



" At times they lay only a pair of eggs. On the 2nd March, 

 1873, when roaming over a plain covered for miles with reh, which 

 gave the ground the appearance of being carpeted with crisp snow, 

 I flushed a Sand-Grouse which ^q\\ perpendicularly out of sight. 

 Looking down, I found a pair of eggs, which were laid parallel to 

 each other, in a slight hoUow, sparingly lined with dry grass-stems. 

 My camp being close to this place, 1 amused myself in watching 

 the birds incubating, feeding round about their nests, and dusting 

 themselves after the fashion of fowls. On the 4th (there being 

 still only two) I removed the eggs, shooting the sitting bird, which 

 proved to be the male. As I approached the nest, the bird glided 

 off, and skulked away in a crouching posture, so as to avoid detec- 

 tion, and then squatted. 



" On the 19th October last my friend Mr. Hastings took a 

 clutch of eggs at Etawah which he sent to me ; these eggs were 

 either unusually late or early as the case may be." 



Colonel Butler writes : — " I found a nest of the Common Sand- 

 Grouse at Dungarwar (55 miles S. of Deesa) on the 13th March, 

 1876. It consisted of a slight depression in the ground scratched 

 by the old bird on a perfectly bare sandy plain and without any 

 lining. I found nests near Deesa on the following dates (1876) : — 



" March 30th. A nest containing 2 fresh eggs. 

 May 6th. „ „ 2 fresh eggs. 



7th. 

 18th. 



20th. 



2 incubated eggs. 



3 slightly incubated eggs. 



1 fresh egg. 



2 fresh eggs. 



" Many of the above nests were on bare ground ; others in grass 

 beerhs, sometimes in the open, at other times under a tussock of 

 grass. I took many other nests during the hot weather, but did not 

 record the dates." 



He adds the following brief note : — " Belgaum District, 9th 

 February, 1880, three fresh eggs ; 18th February, one fresh egg." 



Mr. Serope Doig collected eggs of this Sand-Grouse in the E. 

 Xarra, Sind, in April. 



Mr. J. Davidson tells us that he has taken eggs of this species 

 at Nandurbar in Western Khandesh in February; and this 

 gentleman and Mr. Wenden further tell us that in the Deccan this 

 bird is " very common, and appears to breed at all seasons." 



The eggs are of a very peculiar shape, long and cylindrical like 

 those of a Nightjar. The texture is fine and smooth, and they 

 have generally a fine gloss. Not only in shape, but in markings 

 also do many of them strongly resemble those of some species of 

 Nightjar. The ground-colour varies much ; in some it is a pale, 

 somewhat pinkish stone-colour, in others greyish or dingy greenish 



