CLOSE-BARRED SAND-GROUSE 165 



Closc-barrcd Sand-grouse. 



Pterocles Vichtensteini. 



The close, narrow, transverse black barring on the upper 

 parts and breast of the male of this bird at once distinguish it 

 from that of the painted sand-grouse, to which it is, nevertheless, 

 very similar and closely related ; the hens are, as one would 

 expect, much more alike, but the presence in the present bird of 

 only fourteen instead of sixteen tail-feathers, and the absence 

 of the bars on the " stockings," or leg-feathering — the painted, 

 alone among our sand-grouse, going in for barred hose — are 

 certain distinctions between them ; moreover, on the abdomen 

 of the painted sand-grouse, in both sexes, the black predominates 

 over the white, while the reverse is the case with Lichtenstein's. 



The close-barred sand-grouse is only a frontier bird with us, 

 visiting Sind only, and not penetrating further east than the 

 Indus ; its usual home is North-east Africa, Arabia, and 

 Baluchistan, and it is resident in those countries. It may, 

 perhaps, be found to breed in Sind, although generally ranked 

 only as a cold-weather bird, and one of very irregular occurrence 

 at that. 



When found, it is, like the painted sand-grouse, in pairs, or 

 small parties, frequenting scrub and rocky ground near cultiva- 

 tion. It does not fly far at a time, and lies well, but is not 

 always easy to hit, especially in the dusk, for, again like its ally, 

 it has decidedly nocturnal tendencies, and comes to water very 

 late in the evening and very early in the morning. 



" On moonlight nights," says von Heuglin, speaking of its 

 habits in North-east Africa, " these birds never roost at all, and 

 there is really no end to the clapping and striking of wings and 

 the whistling and croaking of these noisy fowl as they straggle 

 about on the ground, especially in the neighbourhood of the desert 

 springs, with lowered pinions and upturned and outspread 

 tails." They feed, however, he says, in the forenoon and again 

 towards evening, frequenting fields of maize, cotton, and indigo, 

 threshing-floors, caravan-roads, and weedy valleys. The note is 

 quite different from that of the coroneted and common sand- 



