808 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL BIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVlll. 
On the 7th current I was dri\ung in a car through the desert at a place about 
10 miles West of Ahmadpur East with a companion when I noticed a bird on 
the ground that seemed worth investigation. It was late in the afternoon, 
but we got out and looked. The bird proved to be a Sandgrouse, and, on ap- 
proaching nearer, we saw that there were two. Then a second pair came in 
view and, by the time I looked at the first pair again, I found there were with 
them a pair of yormg ones about one-third their size, but weU able to move 
on the ground. This was distinctly interesting, both because the date struck 
us as early for any Sandgrouse to be breeding and because we had both heard a 
note which assured us that this was senegallus, and were near enough to identify 
the coloming. We have both shot the spotted Sandgrouse recently and his 
note cannot be confused •with that of the black-beUied Pterocles arenarius 
or the common Pteroclurus exuslus. 
The old birds with their young ran on ahead of us, and the tactics of the old 
ones were perfect. There was only one tiny bit of cover in the near neighbour- 
hood in this waste of hard wind-swept clay, viz., a thin strip of dwarfish 
bush not more than a few inches high. In this the parents left their babies, 
while they themselves ran on ahead and went through the most approved decoy 
antics. We were not deceived however and proceeded to hunt for the nest- 
lings, which were soon found squatting very close with heads drawn in 
and looking exactly like the bits of dry camel dimg which are to be foimd about. 
My friend stalked one httle bird and caught it successfully in his hand, the in- 
fant not moving till it was secured. The other, either alarmed at the fate of 
its companion or because more advanced (there was a distinct difference in size 
between the two), got up as I approached and ran off, flapping its immature 
wings, but I secured it. There seemed a very good chance of our being able to 
bring the chicks up, so we determined to take them back with us. This we did, 
the old birds flying round us most persistently tiU the last. 
These nesthngs were densely covered ■noth yellowish down of a most com- 
pletely protective colom\ My photo shows the two side by side on a brick 
of regulation size. 
The day but one after, I went out and spent an hour and a half quartering 
the ground in the neighbourhood with a rope. I saw a flock of 14 of the same 
