PTEROCLES GUTTURALIS. 



Inches. Lines. 

 Length of the tarsus 1 i 



middle toe 1 



outer toe 9 



hinder toe lA 



DIMENSIONS 



Inches. Lines. 

 Length from the tip of bill to the end 



of the tail 12 6 



ofthetail 10 



of the wings when folded 8 9 



ofthetail 4 3 



In the female, the top of the head is brownish black, spotted with rusty 

 white ; back of the neck, dull cream yellow, freely dashed with brown ; the 

 sides of the neck and the throat pale honey yellow ; the back, the shoulders, 

 and the breast, brownish black, with large cream-coloured spots ; belly, deep 

 black, barred with pale chesnut. Under tail-coverts bright chesnut, towards 

 their bases barred with black. Tail, blackish brown, with partial bars of 

 light cream-yellow, and all except the two middle feathers, tipt with pale 

 reddish orange. Length 1 1| inches. 



This bird was first discovered in latitude 25° 40', about eighty miles to the eastward of Latakoo, 

 and it was when we remarked its cry to differ from that uttered by Pterocles Tachyptes, Temm. that 

 we were led to a suspicion of its being a distinct species. In common with the other South African 

 species of this genus,it repairs in large flocks at regular and fixed periods, to localities where water 

 exists, and it is at such times that specimens are most readily to be secured. The sportsman, 

 however, to be successful, must be quick in his movements, as they scarcely reach the water 

 before they are again on the wing. Both in approaching to, and receding from such spots, 

 they utter almost incessantly sharp cries, somewhat resembling twet weet, twet weet. From 

 observing these birds when in quest of means for quenching their thirst, one would be disposed 

 to consider them gregarious ; but such notions are soon suspended when their feeding grounds 

 are discovered. Over the latter they are generally dispersed singly or in pairs, and the occa- 

 sional congregation only takes place by solitary individuals successively joining others who are 

 on the way from a greater distance. This species seeks the water about ten in the morning 

 and three in the afternoon, and in that respect resembles the Pterocles Tachyptes, which 

 inhabits a different part of the country. The Pterocles Variegatus, which we shall hereafter 

 figure, prefers to drink during the early part of the morning, and the Pterocles Bicinctus 

 again, during the dusk of the evening, and the early part of the night. In such an arrange- 

 ment we must admit design ; as, were all of the various species to experience thirst at or about 

 the same time, both delay and difficulty would be experienced in quenching it, since owing to 

 the general scarcity of water in the districts they inhabit, even as it is at present, hundreds of 

 the same species are often to be seen fringing the brink of a pool for hours together, and occa- 

 sionally disputing for the first sip. Grass-seeds, ants, and abundance of gravel were found in 

 the stomachs of most of the individuals we secured. 



