Breeding and Raising 
Two attempts at breeding a limited number of wild-trapped imperial 
Sandgrouse under game farm conditions were made in the United States 
between 1954 and 1963. Six birds from Turkey were made available to 
Dr. J. Stokley Ligon at Carlsbad, N. Mex., in 1954 for trial propagation. 
Over several years six eggs were laid but no chicks were hatched there- 
from. Between 1960 and 1961, 21 imperials from Rajasthan were supplied 
to the Utah State game farm at Price by the Nevada Fish and Game Depart~ 
ment. No eggs have been received from these birds. Perhaps it is not 
feasible to propagate this species on game farms. Wild-trapping operations 
would appear to be a more successful way of providing the numbers of 
imperial sandgrouse required for trial release in the United States, 
Bannerman (4) notes that a village official near Nicosia, Cyprus, 
raised three young imperial sandgrouse collected from a wild nest and 
that the birds eventually grew to be quite tame. I raised a similar 
number of very young birds, secured in central Turkey, on small seeds, 
without difficulty. When almost full grown these, together with a few 
adult birds, were shipped to Dr. Ligon. 
Trappin 
The problem of trapping sandgrouse in large numbers, usually at 
waterholes, appeared not to be complicated. Baker (3) reports that "many 
are caught in western India in nets and snares at drinking places. Nets 
about 6 feet in height were placed close to the water in the line of 
flight and kept erect by sticks so set as to fall over at the first im- 
pact. Nooses are placed in great numbers at the water's edge, either 
pegged down singly or attached in rows to one, long string weighted down 
at either end. In Iran (imperial) sandgrouse are caught by spotlighting 
flying birds when they are said to fall down through the beam into your 
hand." 
Cannon nets might have worked well but were not available to us in 
Turkey. Though natives in the mountains were catching thousands of 
chukars with horsehair foot snares, an early trial of this device brought 
only an occasional bird to hand because sandgrouse do not walk around 
much at the waterhole. 
Between 1950 and 1953 several other attempts to catch imperial 
sandgrouse were made, My report (6) of this unsuccessful project is 
given below. 
"The following were employed at watering places frequented by 
several hundred birds, all to no avail: 
"lL. Funnel traps baited with grain. No birds were caught since 
they apparently eat but sparingly when seeking water. 
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