66 THE CLOSE-BARRED SAND-GROUSE, 



together, except about watering-places. When disturbed, this 

 Sand-Grouse rises with a sharp cackling cry. 



" It does not rise high, and usually settles again after a short 

 flight. 



" All kinds of Pterocles, as is well known, fly to water at 

 particular hours in the day, the hours varying with different 

 species. Pt. exustus drinks about 9 A.M. and 4 P.M. In the 

 present case, the drinking hour is at daybreak in the morning, 

 and at dusk in the evening. 



" In the semi-desert country west and north-west of Massowa, 

 in which Pt. lichtensteini abounds, and there are but very few 

 places where water is found, the scene at each spring of an 

 evening, after a hot day especially, is very interesting. At 

 Saati, Ailat, and Ain there was a constant rush of these birds 

 from sunset till dark, and again in the morning before sunrise. 

 Singly and in small flocks, uttering their peculiar a queep- 

 queep"-like note, they flew up and down the water course, on 

 their way to or from the water, keeping only a few feet above 

 the bushes and low trees, the noise of their wings being heard 

 in the dusk before the birds themselves appeared." 



Von Heuglin (Orn. Nord. Ost. Afr.) says : — " During the 

 hottest part of the day these Sand-Grouse keep in families of 

 three to eight or more (at times even in flocks of hundreds) on 

 low hills, or in shallow hollows dotted over with loose stones, 

 harmonizing closely with their own colour ; they are also to be 

 found amongst low leafless bushes and in places thinly sprinkled 

 with desert plants. 



" In the forenoon, and again towards evening, they forage to- 

 gether busily, and feed then in cultivated places in maize, 

 indigo, and cotton fields, at threshing floors, on roads frequent- 

 ed by caravans, and in valleys where there is wild vegetation. 



"As twilight comes on, they become really lively ; the separate 

 parties swarm together and alight with deafening noise to drink 

 on sand banks in some stream, or at the desert springs. Their 

 far-resounding call during sunset and night sounds much like 

 the sharp whistle of the hunter through his fingers ; the note is 

 generally double, but is sometimes single, and is entirely dis- 

 tinct from the cry of Pterocles guttatus, coronatus, and exustus. 

 It produces a peculiar effect on the traveller, who, after a long 

 hot day's march, is resting beside a half dried-up pool in some 

 lonely valley, when suddenly the sharp whistle of one of these 

 birds, spectre-like in the dim light, darting over head with 

 arrow-like swiftness, rings out amid the wonted stillness of the 

 waste. 



" On moonlight nights these birds never roost at all, and there 

 is really no end to the clapping and striking of wings and the 

 whistling and croaking of these noisy fowl as they straggle 

 about on the ground, especially in the neighbourhood of the 

 desert springs, with lowered pinions and up-turned and out- 



