65 



stated that, from the closeness and firmness of its plumage, it takes a good gun and heavy shot to 

 bring it down. A writer records the great preponderance of one sex in every flock, sometimes 

 killing seven or eight females and not one male, and vice versd. The flesh is mixed brown and 

 white on the breast; and though somewhat tough when fresh, and perhaps requiring to be 

 skinned, it is reckoned delicious eating ; indeed one writer says that it is the finest game bird for 

 the table in India. Shooting them from a hole dug in the ground near their drinking-spots is 

 said to be a very deadly way of making a good bag ; and this I can readily believe. It is caught 

 in the neighbourhood of Peshawur and other places in horse-hair nooses." 



Its nest is said to be a mere depression in the soil scratched out by the bird ; and three are 

 the number of eggs usually deposited. I possess several eggs collected at Arganda, in Spain, 

 early in June. In shape they are oval, rather elongated, tapering equally towards each end, and 

 in colour are light stone-colour or buff, more or less marbled with very indistinct purplish grey 

 underlying shell-markings and light brown overlying surface-blotches, which latter in some of 

 the specimens are drawn in fantastical shapes ; and in most of the eggs the dark markings are 

 more or less collected round one end. In size they vary from lf^ by l^f to 2 inches by 1^. 

 Canon Tristram writes (Ibis, 1860, p. 70), " the eggs are placed two in a line, and the third 

 lengthwise outside them, in a depression in the sand without any nest. The bird in sitting, as I 

 have observed, lies on one side, spreading out one wing to cover the eggs, thus presenting a 

 grotesque lopsided appearance ; but it is a position for which the deep keel of her sternum 

 admirably adapts her." 



The specimens figured are an adult male and female from my own collection, these being 

 those I have above described ; but the young bird I have also described is in the collection of 

 my friend Mr. Howard Saunders. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens: — 



E Mus. E. E. Dresser. 



a. Southern Spain (Saunders) . b,6 . Cordova, Spain, January 3rd, 1872 (Lord Lilford) . c, $ . Spain (Lord 

 Lilford). d, 2. Ludjak (Ladak?), December 11th, 1864. e, 6. Ludjak, June 24th, 1864. /. Punjab, 

 1868 (Marshall). 



E Mm. H. B. Tristram, 

 a, d , b,2. Laghouat, Sahara, November 1856 (H. T. B.). 



E Mus. Howard Saunders, 

 a, 6 . Seville district, March 28th, 1869. b, 6, c, ? , d,juv. October 10th, 1868. 



3n 



