. Indian sporting birds . en been seen feeding andflying about at night, and observations on specimens in captivityin England have shown them so verj^ lethargic by day that itis probable that they are really night—rather than day—birds,which would no doubt account for the fact of their lying so muchcloser than other species. Their note is as characteristic as their other traits; althoughthey call on the wing like other sand-grouse, the note is describedby Hume as a chuckling chirp. The nest of this bird is, however, the usual sand-grouse scrape on the ground, with the scantiest of lining, if a
. Indian sporting birds . en been seen feeding andflying about at night, and observations on specimens in captivityin England have shown them so verj^ lethargic by day that itis probable that they are really night—rather than day—birds,which would no doubt account for the fact of their lying so muchcloser than other species. Their note is as characteristic as their other traits; althoughthey call on the wing like other sand-grouse, the note is describedby Hume as a chuckling chirp. The nest of this bird is, however, the usual sand-grouse scrape on the ground, with the scantiest of lining, if any ; theeggs, which are usually three in number, but sometimes two oreven four, are of the typical long shape, but of a very distinctivecolour, salmon-pink, marked with brownish-red and dull purple ;they are much like those of some nightjars. The weight of these birds is between six and seven ounces,the male exceeding the female but very little. In South Indiait is known as Handeri, the Tamil word being Sonda UJ h- CO o COUJ _Jo Q_ CLOSE-BARRED SAND-GROUSE 165 Closc-barrcd Sand-grouse. Pterocles Vichtensteini. The close, narrow, transverse black barring on the upperparts and breast of the male of this bird at once distinguish itfrom that of the painted sand-grouse, to which it is, nevertheless,very similar and closely related ; the hens are, as one wouldexpect, much more alike, but the presence in the present bird ofonly fourteen instead of sixteen tail-feathers, and the absenceof the bars on the stockings, or leg-feathering—the painted,alone among our sand-grouse, going in for barred hose—arecertain distinctions between them ; moreover, on the abdomenof the painted sand-grouse, in both sexes, the black predominatesover the white, while the reverse is the case with Lichtensteins. The close-barred sand-grouse is only a frontier bird with us,visiting Sind only, and not penetrating further east than theIndus; its usual home is North-east Africa, Arabia, andBaluch
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