FOREWORD 
There are extensive habitat types within the vast, semiarid regions 
of the western United States which are largely deficient of native game 
birds. During the past 10 years, Foreign Game Introduction personnel 
have explored the possibility of locating foreign species which might 
prove adaptable to such areas. Specifically, what is needed in the West 
where no upland game bird thrives today, is either a sedentary species 
or a semimigratory game bird that has been accustoned to habitat extremes. 
This species must be able to endure freezing winter temperatures, occa- 
sionally with snow, and summer droughts in areas where watering sources 
are limited. Food conditions for a new game bird might be good in certain 
years, or in other years there might be a minimum of grass and forb 
growth with perhaps some dry upland grainfields. It is not difficult to 
envision that few sedentary upland game birds of the world would be able 
to tolerate all of these seasonal habitat hardships. It would appear 
that a migratory or semimigratory bird, which has the ability to range 
over many miles in search of food and water, has the best chance of 
fitting into the habitat described. 
A number of species that thrive under annual precipitation levels 
of 5 to 27 inches have been studied, but only two groups, the bustards 
and the sandgrouse, both of which may meet some of the standards noted 
above, have been located to date, Among the bustards, which are dis- 
tributed in Europe, Asia, and Africa, only four, the European bustard, 
the great Indian bustard, the houbara, and the little bustard, have been 
observed by program biologists. None of these seems to offer excep- 
tional promise. The sandgrouse family is larger and more widely dis- 
tributed. Two genera, containing 16 species, and 29 subspecies, ranging 
from Europe and Asia through Africa have been described (Baker 3, Peters 
31, Ripley 32). Some species are migratory, and even the resident 
species may move about over a considerable area, sometimes in flocks of 
thousands. 
During the course of program studies, six of the species, found in 
Europe and/or southern Asia, have been evaluated, and attention has focused 
on two, the common sandgrouse of India (Pterocles exustus hindustan) and 
the imperial sandgrouse (P. orientalis). Both provide excellent sport, 
are abundant over a large range, and occupy habitats similar in many 
respects to the semiarid regions of the western United States. Program 
operations in India and Pakistan provided an opportunity to secure life 
history data on the common Indian sandgrouse. Its larger relative, the 
imperial sandgrouse was studied, though not as intensively, in Spain, 
Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and northwestern India by program per- 
sonnel. On the basis of this work, trial introductions of the common 
Indian sandgrouse were made in 1960-62 in the States of Nevada and Hawaii. 
This report presents the data accumulated to date and evaluates the 
potential of both species for introduction. 
