TCD MS 11290/2 folio 1 recto
[?1916]
Dear Mother,
I have just got orders for a new job still on the desert but 500 miles N.West so it should be quite cold with rain and quite green I expect.
I got my gun a couple of days ago and next day we got 2 brace of sand grouse charging them in a motor car which is the only way to get near them.
They are lovely little birds tawny coloured just like the desert with pin tails and a flight more like a golden plover than a grouse. You only realize he is a grouse when you see a flock of them sunning themselves in the sand for all the world like a big covey of partridge.
They live on the camel tracks out here as there is always a quantity of waste grain from them lying about the desert and are as plump and sweet as a snipe is to eat.
I hear the hens at home are starting to lay my hens out here have been laying us about 7 eggs a day and we only have 11 of them. Unfortunately I have eaten most of mine now.
We had rain here yesterday for the first time here this winter and today everything is lovely and fresh and the sand much harder for walking.