PIN-TAILED SAND GKOUSE. 



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. Mr. Tristram 

 says, "except 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 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, according to Mr. Salvin, 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, Tcmminck two or 

 three eggs. The egg is described by Mr. Tristram as 

 perfectly elliptical in all the five species he possesses 

 of the genus Pterocles. It is of a much richer fawn- 

 colour than that of P. arcnarius, "covered 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 was taken by his own hand. 



Mr. 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, and that 

 in Egypt he found the two species of Sand Grouse, 



