48 THE LARGE OR BLACK-BELLIED SAND-GROUSE, 



Directly it begins to be at all hot, the large Sand-Grouse 

 leaves us. In 1868, when the heat set in early, every bird had 

 left the neighbourhood of Sirsa and Fazilka by the end of 

 February ; and though, up in the cooler extreme north-west about 

 Peshawar and Mardan, I have known them to occur during the 

 first week of April, it is very rare to meet with them elsewhere 

 after the 15th March. About Sirsa, they never, that I know of, 

 appear before the 1st of October, and in warm years not before 

 quite the end of that month. Lower down in the Doab, as at 

 Etawah, they are scarcely, if ever, seen before the 15th of 

 November, or after the 20th February, though during December 

 and January considerable numbers may almost always be found 

 in suitable tracts to the south-east of that district. 



Vast sandy plains, with water easily accessible, are what they 

 like, and wherever these occur in North-Western India, there 

 the large Sand-Grouse are sure to be found during the coldest 

 portion of the year. 



The countless multitudes that occur in some seasons between 

 Ferozepore and Mooltan, on either side of the Sutlej, and 

 throughout Sirsa and Bahawalpur, are scarcely credible. 



They go to some watering place regularly every morning, later 

 in the very cold weather, earlier as the temperature increases. 

 Driving, in November 1867, the last stage into Fazilka, from 

 Ferozepore, parallel to, and on the average about two miles distant 

 from, the Sutlej, over 100 flocks or parties of from four or 

 five to close upon one hundred each, flew over us during our 

 1 5 miles drive. They were all going to the river to drink or 

 returning thence. Necessarily we can only have seen an 

 exceedingly small fraction of the total number that that morn- 

 ing crossed that little stretch of road. 



Further inland, if I may use the phrase, where rivers are too 

 distant for them to resort to, they frequent, in this portion of 

 the Punjab, the few tanks that are to be found. Long before 

 the Sand-Grouse leave, most of these have dried up, and it often 

 happens that there are only two or three watering places left within 

 a radius of many miles. When this occurs, the native sports- 

 men station themselves in ambush near these few places, and 

 slaughter multitudes, while fowlers catch them in nets or snares 

 laid at the water's edge. Khan Nizam-ud-din tells me (and, 

 unlike most natives, what he says may be relied on) that he and 

 two European Officers, stationed one at each of three tanks, 

 bagged between them 54 brace one morning in two hours. 



Ploughed land is a very favourite resort in the early mornings, 

 and there they squat basking in the sun's earliest rays, huddled 

 up so close together, and, where the party is large, in such dense 

 masses, that large numbers may be bagged with a couple of 

 charges of large shot, if one is only lucky enough to be able 

 to approach within 50 yards. In the Aligarh district, my old 

 shikari crept up to and shot every one of a party of seven 



