THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



[June 



Length about 12 inches; weight 8 to 9 ounces. The female is 

 somewhat smaller and has the whole upper plumage as also the space 

 beneath the pectoral band, dingy yellowish brown, closely barred with 

 deep brown or black ; neck and breast of a more dingy colour than 

 the male ; central feathers of the tail not nearly so long and tapering 

 as they are in the male, 



This species of sand-grouse is common throughout all India except 

 the more wooded portions, and is also fouud in many parts of Central 

 and Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is unknown in Assam, 

 Sylhet or Burmah, in which countries, I believe, there is no species 

 of sand-grouse found. They are plentiful in the barer portions of the 

 Gujerat plain, but are not so excessively numerous as they are said to 

 be in some parts of the Central Provinces and Central India. I 

 generally saw them in small flocks of from 15 to 30, but larger flocks 

 were not uncommon, and once or twice I saw two or three hundred 

 together. The common sand-grouse, like other birds, are very regular 

 in their habits, and the way in which they spend their day in India 

 during the cold weather seems to be as follows : — They feed in the 

 cool of the morning, and then about 9 o'clock they fly off to some tank 

 or stream to drink. The flock settles on some gently shelving bank, 

 the birds run down to the water, take a drink and run back again ; 

 then they wait a minute or two picking up sand or gravel, and finally 

 all take wing together. After their drink they betake themselves to 

 some open sandy spot where they spend the heat of the day basking 

 in the sun and dusting themselves in the sand. When quietly sun- 

 ning themselves they are extremely hard to see even on a piece of ab- 

 solutely bare sand, for their plumage is almost exactly the colour of 

 the soil. About 4 o'clock a few of them fly to the water again and 

 have a second drink but I never saw many do so. Shortly after this 

 they all go once more to their feeding ground, stubble or ploughed 

 land, the latter for choice, and here they remain until it gets quite 

 dark. Whether they roost on the feeding grounds I could not tell, 

 but I should think they probably returned to the open sand. 



Walking these birds up is not very great sport, but I must say 

 they are by no means so ridiculously tame as some writers would lead ; 

 one to imagine. Indeed if the flock is at all a large one it is by no J j 

 means easy to get within even long gun-shot. The best way to get I 

 near them is not to walk straight towards them, but to pretend to j 

 be going to walk past them. When put up they are not very quick 



