PTEROCLES SENEGALLUS 241 



median rectiices, which extend two or three inches beyond the others, 

 brownish-buff, darker at the tips ; the remaining tail-feathers brown at base, 

 then blackish, tipped with white; chin and throat yellow; upper breast 

 bluish-grey, shading into sandy-buff, the middle of the abdomen with an 

 irregular blackish streak running down it as far as the crissum and under 

 tail coverts, which are whitish. 



Iris almost black ; bill bluish-grey ; feet whitish. 



Total length 12 inches, wing 8-25, culmen -50, tarsus -90. 



Adult female, spring, from Tarfaoui, South Tunisia. 



Upper-parts pale sandy-isabelline, striped on the crown and nape, and 

 spotted elsewhere with blackish-brown ; the two central rectrices, which 

 project rather more than an inch beyond the others, dark grey ; primaries 

 pale brown, becoming darker on the tips; entire throat, cheeks, and sides 

 of the neck yellow ; upper breast pale creamy-isabelliue, spotted with dark 

 brown ; rest of the underparts pale creamy-isabelline, with a broad irregular 

 dark brown stripe running down the middle of the abdomen. 



Soft parts and measurements as in the male. 



The young bird has the upper plumage sandy-buff marked with irregular 

 wavy dark lines ; the throat is dull white, below which are some rather 

 darker feathers with still darker wavy lines ; the rest of the underparts are 

 like those of the adult ; but the median rectrices do not extend beyond the 

 other tail-feathers. 



This species appears to be the least plentiful of the four species 

 of Sand-Grouse found in Tunisia, and its range there seems to be 

 restricted to the more southern inland districts and the Chott region. 

 I have, indeed, never met with the species myself in Tunisia, although 

 I have examples of it, obtained by my collectors at Tarfaoui, a district 

 lying to the north-west of the Chott Djerid, and possibly it is not 

 uncommon in that and other localities in the Chott region. 



In Algeria P. senegallus is particularly abundant in some parts of 

 the Sahara, and in certain localities is more plentiful than P. coronatus, 

 or indeed than any other species of Sand-Grouse. I met with it in 

 large flocks at Sidi-Okbar, near Biskra, and Dr. Koenig appears to 

 have found it equally abundant in other localities in the Algerian 

 Sahara. 



Mr. Dodson found this Sand-Grouse remarkably numerous in 

 Tripoli, in the neighbourhood of Oumsinerma, not far from the coast 

 of the Gulf of Syrtes, and obtained several specimens, together with 

 the young and eggs of the species. The range of P. senegallus 

 apparently extends throughout North Africa, eastward through Arabia, 

 Persia and Afghanistan, as far as India. 



16 VOL. II. 



