PIN-TAILEI) (iKOTTSE. 
22o 
even bred them. The male appeared very attentive to 
its mate, Avhose voice it readily responded to in 
syllables resembling ‘kaak, kaak, kaak, ka, ka, ka.’ 
In the desert however it is very wild. Mr, Tristram 
says, ‘Txcept during 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 distinguished by 
the eve 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, according to INIr. Salvin, it 
deposits only three eggs, which are laid in IMay, and 
the young arc hatched in about the second week of June. 
Dcgland says it lays four or five, Tcmminck two or 
three eggs. The egg is described by Mr. Tristram as 
perfectly elliptical in all the five species he possesses 
of the srenus Pterocles. It is of a much richer fliwn- 
O 
colour than that of P. arenarius, ‘Aovered and sometimes 
zoned with large maroon-red blotches.” 
That which is figured — a specimen kindly sent to 
me by Mr. Tristram — is one inch and nine tenths long, 
and three inches and nine tenths round the middle. 
It Avas taken by his own hand. 
Mr. Tristram says that the Pin-tail Sand Grouse is 
A'ery bad eating, the flesh, like that of its congener, 
being both poor and dry. Mr. E. C. Taylor, hoAvcA’cr, 
does battle upon this point, (Ibis, vol. ii, p. 199.) Avhere 
he says that it all depends upon the cook, and that 
in Egypt he found the two species of Sand Grouse, 
