THE COMMON SAND-GROUSE. 73 



we used to call a " happy-go-lucky rampage," they contribute 

 not a little to the amusement. They lie close, it is true, and as a 

 rule are far from shy, but they are exactly, when squatting, the 

 colour of the ground ; they rise with extreme rapidity, by choice 

 just behind you, or in a line with some lagging beater, and, 

 even under the most favourable circumstances, it is by no means 

 impossible to fire both barrels without tangible results. 



Although this species is a permanent resident and breeds with 

 us, it moves about a good deal according to season, and especial- 

 ly where the country is not well drained and the soil is retentive 

 of moisture, they desert large tracts, which at other seasons are 

 suitable to them, during a part or the whole of the rainy season. 

 Jerdon alludes to this in regard to Mhow and parts of Saugor, 

 but during a heavy rainy season there is scarcely a single 

 clayey or deep black-soil tract, where there are no gravelly 

 uplands, that does not afford an illustration of it, and every one 

 knows how, during the rains, the high blown sand ridges, so 

 common in Upper India, and dotted along the tops with tufts of 

 Sarpatta grass, are a certain find for any Bhut-titur in the 

 neighbourhood. 



This species lays almost anywhere, provided the situation is 

 open and the ground dry at the time ; but the haunts it best 

 loves, and where its nests may be found in greatest numbers, are 

 scattered fallow or stubble, or newly-ploughed fields, dotted 

 about on and surrounded by large semi-desert plains. 



As to the breeding season, I hardly know what to say. I 

 have found their eggs in almost every month of the year in one 

 place or another, but in the North-Western Provinces the 

 majority probably lay from April to June. 



Further west and north, where the rainfall is very scanty, they 

 must, I think, have two or more broods in the year. 



Khan Nizam-ud-din, Khan Bahadur, the well-known Punjab 

 sportsman, who has collected for me for so many years, always 

 kept up a register, showing, from day to day, the various birds 

 and eggs obtained, the localities in which found, &c., and this he 

 always sent me with each batch of skins and eggs. 



From his registers for 1869 and 1870, I find that he took 

 nests of this present species on the subjoined dates in each year : 

 this was at Arniwala, some fifteen miles east of Fazilka in the 

 Sirsa District. 



1869. 1870. 



January ...... 



February 3rd, 24th. 



March 1st, 4th, 12th, 21st 



April 21st, 22nd, 27th, 28th. 



May 8th, 25th, 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 15th, 28th. 



June 1 6th, 17th, 30th, nth, 15th, 21st, 30th, 



July 1st, 2nd, 5th, 10th, nth, 12th. 23rd. 



August 



IO 



