70 THE COMMON SAND-GROUSE. 



It must not of course be forgotten that single birds of this 

 species, as of many others, may now and again be met with 

 quite beyond its normal limits. A single specimen of Stercora- 

 rius pomatorhinus was caught at Moulmein; a single Likh 

 was shot at Sandoway in Arakan ; a single Phaeton flavirostris 

 at Dilkhusha in N. E. Cachar ; and a single bird of this present 

 species in the Botanical Gardens, Calcutta. In this, as in all 

 other cases, it is only the normal limits that I seek to define, 

 though I shall always be only too glad to record the 

 occurrence of stragglers beyond these. 



Outside our limits we only certainly know of its occurrence 

 along the North of Africa, from Algiers, in Egypt, Palestine 

 and Arabia Petraea, in Northern Nubia, and along the shores 

 of the Red Sea as far south as Massowa in Abyssinia. Hutton 

 tells us that it is common throughout the southern parts of 

 Afghanistan. Doubtless it also occurs in Beluchistan, and pro- 

 bably in many places along the Arabian Coast, if not in the 

 interior, but I do not as yet accept its occurrence in either Central 

 Asia, Southern Europe, or Senegambia ; all of which are locali- 

 ties commonly (and as I think on insufficient evidence) assign- 

 ed for this species. 



The Common Sand-Grouse, though very frequently met with 

 in considerable packs numbering from twenty to two hundred 

 individuals, is never, so far as my experience goes, seen in 

 those enormous flocks which P. alchata and, in a somewhat 

 lesser degree, P. arenarius affect. In all parts of the country 

 where I have shot them, I have most frequently seen them in 

 parties of from five to thirty. 



In their habits they are most regular and methodical. Al-^ 

 most the moment the sun is above the horizon (except in very 

 cold weather, when they are a little lazy) they may be seen 

 trotting about and feeding in stubble fields, near the margins 

 of scanty patches of cultivation surrounded by waste land, 

 or on old fallows scantily dotted about with grass, silver-scale, 

 and similar wild seed-bearing plants. 



They live wholly on seeds, and no small seeds seem to come 

 amiss to them. I have found millet, grass seeds, pulses of 

 various kinds, and all kinds of, to me, unknown seeds in their 

 crops, but very seldom even a single insect, though I have 

 noted two cases in which I found, in one ants, in the other small 

 beetles, amongst the seeds. 



From about 8 to 10 A.M., according to season, they are off to 

 some stream, river, or tank to drink, and where, or at times when, 

 water is scarce and drinking places few and far between, very 

 considerable numbers resort to the same place and afford oppor- 

 tunities for very pretty sport, if several guns lie up at distances 

 of from one to two hundred yards from the pool and shoot the 

 birds fairly as they come and go high over head. Their flight is 



