The COMMON SAND GROUSE, or ROCK PIGEON OF INDIA (_Pterocles exustus_), the third species of this group, is principally of a beautiful reddish cream-colour, shading into bright yellow on the face, cheeks, and wing-covers, and overspread with a bright greenish gloss upon the back; the deep reddish-brown lower breast and belly are divided from the upper portion of the plumage by a narrow black line, which commences at the sides of the throat, and passes across the breast; the lower tail-covers and feathered tarsi are cream-colour, the small feathers of the wing-covers have a line of reddish brown at the tip, the primary quills are black, all except the three outermost having the tip and inner web white; the very long, slender, and sharply-pointed centre pair of tail-feathers are of a yellowish shade, and those at the exterior dark brown, spotted and striped with a paler tint. The eye is dark brown, the bare circle that surrounds it lemon-yellow; the beak and toes are lead-grey. This species is thirteen inches long and twenty-three broad, the wing measures seven and a half, and the tail from five and a half to six inches. The markings upon the back of the female are darker than in the plumage of the male bird; the head, nape, and throat are greyish, darkly spotted; the breast band is paler, the belly striped black and brown. The centre tail-feathers are only a trifle longer than the rest. [Illustration: THE COMMON SAND GROUSE (_Pterocles exustus_).] "This," writes Jerdon, "is the most common and abundant species of Sand Grouse throughout India, being found in every part of the country except the more wooded portions, and never occurring in forest districts. It is therefore quite unknown in Malabar, in the wooded districts of Central India, and in Lower Bengal, and neither this, nor either of the previous species, as far as is known, occur to the eastwards, in Assam, Sylhet, or Burmah. Out of India, it is common through great part of Central and Western Asia and Northern Africa, and, it is stated, has been met with, though rarely, in Europe. This Sand Grouse frequents the bare open plains, whether rocky or otherwise, and is very partial to ploughed lands and bare fallow fields. It feeds chiefly in the morning, and between eight and nine a.m. goes to drink at some river or tank, at which in certain parts of the country thousands assemble, and may then be seen winging their way in larger or smaller parties from all quarters, at a great height, uttering their peculiar, loud, piercing call, which announces their vicinity to the sportsman long before he has seen them. They remain a few minutes at the water's edge, walking about and picking up fragments of sand or gravel, and then fly off as they came. In the hot weather, at all events, if not at all seasons, they drink again about four p.m. When they are seated on bare sand or rock they are most difficult to observe, from the similarity of their colour to that of the ground; sometimes they