?8 THE PINTAILED SAND-GROUSE, 



Northwards of the Mediterranean it has wandered^at times into 

 Greece, Malta, and perhaps Sicily, and is not uncommon in suit- 

 able localities in Portugal, Spain, and Southern France, while 

 stragglers have been obtained in Northern France, and a single 

 specimen, it is said, in Hanover. 



Of all the Sand-Grouse that inhabit or visit India, and half 

 the known species do this, none habitually associate in such 

 enormous flocks as the Pintail does during the cold season. 

 Near Mardan, I have seen flocks of at least ten thousand, and 

 in Northern Sind I know that they similarly occur at times 

 in countless numbers. So, too, at Bushire and in Mesopotamia, 

 I know from trustworthy observers of their being repeatedly ob- 

 served, and always in gigantic packs* 



I have seen very little of this species myself, and only on a 

 vast plain some miles from Hoti Mardan where, during the winter, 

 they were in tens of thousands. This plain is partly barren, 

 partly fallow, and partly cultivated with wheat, mustard, and 

 the like. It was only on the barren and fallow land that I saw 

 them. They were extremely wary, and it was only by creeping 

 up a nala or small ravine that it was possible to get within 

 even a long shot of them. Their flight is extremely rapid and 

 powerful, to me it seemed more so than that of any of 

 their congeners. They are very noisy birds, and whether seat- 

 ed or flying, continually utter their peculiar cry, which, though 

 somewhat of the same character as that of arenarius, is un- 

 mistakeably distinct from the call note of any of the other 

 species. 



Those I shot, and, according to their account, most of the 

 large series previously shot by my collectors, had fed entirely on 

 green leaves, seeds, small pulse, and grain of different kinds. 

 The gizzards contained quantities of small stones. There were 

 several pools and places where the rain floods had not quite 

 dried up, on the plain I have referred to, and the birds seemed 

 to sit about much in their immediate neighbourhood. 



One or two of my birds were very fat, so much so that it 

 was difficult to skin them, but, as a rule, when cooked they 

 were as dry and tasteless as the rest of the Sand-Grouse. 



I was told that they were occasionally hawked with 

 Shaheens, but their flight is so rapid and powerful that I 

 should doubt much sport being obtained this way. I was also 

 told that they could be shot by working a couple of Peregrines 

 over them, when they allow a very close approach and almost 

 refuse to rise. 



They are easily caught in horse-hair nooses, as I myself saw. 



They leave the Punjab, I understand, by the end of March 

 or early in April, and do not of course breed with us. 



* It has been surmised that this species was the " Quail" of the Israelites. 



