THE SPOTTED SAND-GROUSE, 55 



in very large flocks at times. It is very fond of the south shore 

 of the Manchar Lake, where thousands may be seen at a time 

 drinking, and then basking on the smooth short grass, which 

 the receding of the lake has left behind. 



" Where the birds abound, it would at all times be easy to get 

 eight or ten brace, or more. They can be easily approached by 

 walking up to them rapidly, making as if to pass them, and 

 shooting directly they are within shot, in exactly the same 

 way as P. exustus is procured." 



Nothing has ever been recorded of their nidification, but 

 some, at any rate, do breed in Sind, as I possess an egg obtain- 

 ed there. 



This single egg I owe to Mr. William Blanford, who extract- 

 ed it from the body of a female which he shot on the 20th 

 March 1875 m the desert west of Shikarpur, Upper Sind. In 

 shape and size the egg is similar to that of exustus, but the 

 markings are much more sparse than in any egg of that species 

 that I have ever seen. The egg is, of course, cylindro-ovoidal ; 

 the ground colour is pale yellowish stone, and the markings, 

 which are thinly distributed over the surface of the egg y 

 consist of olive brown spots and tiny blotches, with a few crooked 

 and hooked lines. ; besides these, a few pale purplish lilac or 

 inky grey spots, streaks, and smears, having a sub-surface appear- 

 ance, are scattered irregularly about the surface of the egg. 



Having been extracted from the body of the bird, the egg 

 has, of course, but little gloss. It measures 1*5 by 1*05. 



I have measured numerous specimens in the flesh with the 

 following results : — 



Males. — Length, 13*4 to 147 ; expanse, 23 to 237; tail from 

 vent, 5*3 to 6 ; wing, 7-5 to yg ; the wings when closed reach to 

 within from 2*3 to 2*8 of the end of the longest tail feathers, viz.> 

 the central ones, which exceed the others by from 175 to 2 ; bill 

 at front, 0*44 to 0*47 ; tarsus, 1 to 1*05. Weight, 9 to 12 ozs. 



Females. — Length, 12*4 to 13*1 ; expanse, 22 to 22*6 ; tail from 

 vent, 4 to 4*6 ; the central tail feathers only extending from 

 075 to 1*2 beyond the rest ; wing, 7*3 to 7*5 ; bill at front, 0*4 

 to 0-44. Weight, 8 to 9 ozs. 



I rides brown; bare orbital skin yellowish ; bill pale plumbe- 

 ous, bluish grey or bluish white, always somewhat more dusky 

 towards the tip ; feet pale plumbeous or bluish white, paler 

 towards the upper surfaces of the toes, and whitish on scales. 



The Plate is a cruel caricature of the species, just sufficiently 

 like to permit of identification, but miscoloured to a degree 

 only explicable on the hypothesis of somebody s colour-blind- 



