210 PTEROCLID.il. 



Hah. — The desert regions of Asia, Southern Europe and North 

 Africa ; Asia Minor and Palestine. Every where common in Sind, 

 Punjab, N. W. Provinces, Oudh and Bengal ; Kutch, throughout 

 Eajputana, Kattiawar and North Guzerat; Beloochistan, Persia, Afgha- 

 nistan and Eastern Turkistan. 



Pterocles exustuF, Tem. PL Col. Nos. 354, 3G0; Bupp. Les. 

 Trait Oni. p. 5l7; Sykes^P. Z. 8. 1832, p. 154; Gray, Gen. BAu. 

 p. 519; Jerd. Madras journ. xii. p. 3; Handlist, Syst. Orn. W. Afr. p. 

 205; Jerd. B. Ind. iii. p. 502; Hume, Str. F. vii. 160; mUotf, P: Z. S. 

 1878, p. 248; Murray, Hdhk., ZuoL, cj-c, ISind, p. 202.— The Common 

 Sand G bouse. 



Head and nape, sides of the neck and breast isabelline with a faint 

 fulvous tinge ; lores, sides of the face, chin and throat yellowish or light 

 orange buff; back and rump like the breast, the feathers with darker 

 tips; scapulars tipped greyish fulvous ; upper tail-coverts with a greenish 

 cast; primaries dusky brown, all, except the four outermost, broadly white 

 on their inner margins near the tip, the innermost also tipped white ; 

 secondaries hair brown, their terminal third with buffy edges on their 

 exterior webs ; tertiaries the same, but with narrower buff edgings ; 

 wing-coverts buff, the feathers tipped narrowly with blackish 

 chestnut ; tail with the central feathers much elongated beyond, the 

 rest slightly darker buff than the wing-coverts, black-shafted, the 

 lengthened narrow portion black ; lateral feathers dusky rufescent, 

 with pale rufous bars on their exterior webs, tipped white and with a 

 subterminal dark band ; a narrow black pectoral band, occasionally 

 edged on its apper side with fulvous white followed by a broad band of 

 isabelline; rest of the under parts chocolate brown, paler on the vent; 

 the flanks and thigh-coverts chestnut ; lower tail-coverts creamy or 

 fulvous white ; tarsal plumes fulvous or yellowish white. 



The female has the entire upper plumage, as also the space between 

 the pectoral band and abdomen, fulvous, closely barred with deep 

 brown; breast unspotted isabelline, like the male. 



Length. — 10 to 11 "5 inches, wings 7, tail 3'5. The males average 

 from 9'5 to 10 in length, bill leaden brown, legs brown, irides dark 

 brown. 



Hah. — N. E. Africa, Arabia, Nubia, Egypt, Abyssinia and Palestine; 

 Sind, Kutch, Rajputana, Kattiawar, N. Guzerat and Deccan ; Punjab, 

 N. W. Provinces, Bengal, Sylhet, Burmah, Beloochistan, Quetta and 

 Afghanistan. 



Pterocles alchata, Linn. 8yst. Nat. i. p. 276 ; Gmel. 8ysf. Nat. i. 

 754 ; Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 641 ; JAcht. Verz. Double, p. 64; Jerd. B. Ind. 

 iii. p. 500, No. 801 ; Hume, Str. F. i. p. 221 ; Blf. East. Persia, ii. p. 271 ; 

 Murray, Hdbk., Zool, §-c., 8 Ind, p. 197 ; Fliiott, P. Z. 8. 1878, 251. 

 Pterocles setarius, Tem. Pig. et Gallince, iii. pp. 256, 714. — The Pin- 

 tailed Sand Grouse. 



Male.- — Forehead and crown, also the nape and sides of the face 

 yellowish buff with a ferruginous tinge ; the crown with some nearly 

 obsolete dark bars ; chin, throat and a streak behind each eye black ; 



