In Kuwait which is considerably warmer from November through April 
than is Rajasthan, Dickson (16) reports imperials as arriving between 
September 15 and October 15 and leaving for the north between April 10 
and 30, Ingoldby (27) reports imperials at Quazvin, west of Teheran, 
Iran, in early February and I collected a pair near Shahrud in early 
April. In fact, arrival dates on breeding grounds are astonishingly 
similar in Turkey, where I saw them commonly beginning in mid-March. 
Radde and Walter (1889) report a surge of birds into Turkman on March 8 
and 9 and along the Atreka River in the Meshed~Messerian desert between 
March 12 and April 1; Spangenberg (1936) located arriving imperials 
along the Syr-Darya River on March 23. Further east these birds usually 
appear during the first two weeks in April. 
Migration routes are not as yet well defined, but the distances 
covered can be substantial. Some birds, raised in southwestern Siberia 
presumably must cross the high ranges of the Hindu Kush to reach 
wintering grounds in southern Iran, West Pakistan, and India, a dis- 
tance of at least a thousand miles. According to Whistler (43) 
innumerable flocks may be observed every morning, following the same 
route or course on their movement between winter and summer ranges. 
He further notes that the periodicity of migrations of this species is 
often almost as marked as is that of Indian cranes. The long daily 
flights to water, characteristic of this species throughout the year, 
have already been mentioned. 
The division of imperials into sex packs was not noted by 
Program personnel though Baker (3) indicates that flocks entering 
the winter range in Rajasthan are often of one sex with the birds 
intermingling with the opposite sex soon thereafter. 
Like the common sandgrouse, the imperial exhibits rather regular 
daily movements, Whistler (44), speaking of the imperial sandgrouse 
in the Thar Desert, describes these as follows: "in the morning 
about 8 to 10 a.m. they fly to water to drink, all the flocks in the 
neighbourhood using the same place; after drinking they fly to the 
feeding ground which is bare open country with an occasional strag-~ 
gling bush or two, lying fallow after a rabi (greens, legumes, mustard) 
crop; here they find grains of that crop and the seeds of weeds, 
While feeding they keep close together and move with much deliberation, 
locking in the distance rather like a collection of mud-turtles,. 
Tney remain, if not disturbed, on this ground till the evening; when 
a proportion again fly to drink and then they collect at the 'jugging' 
places which are usually in the young kharif crops and which may be 
recognized by the abundance of footmarks and droppings.'' The propen- 
sity of these birds to rest in a dusty spot under the hot midday 
sun has already been mentioned. 
33 
