PTEROCLID&. 295 
The Large or Black-bellied Sand Grouse is found during the 
winter months, in Sind, Guzerat, and Rajputana. They frequent 
open sandy plains, and are, if they have been much worried, very 
difficult to shoot. They go regularly to drink every morning, 
and native shikaries, taking advantage of this, lie in ambush 
and often succeed in slaughtering great numbers of them. 
They do not breed in India, but at Chaman, Southern 
Afghanistan, I found them breeding freely during May and June. 
They lay in slight depressions in the soil, and the eggs, three. in 
number, are similar to those of P. exustus, but are of course 
much larger. They average 1°8 inches in length by about 
1:25 in breadth. 
Pterocles fasciatus, Scop. 
800.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 498; Butler, Guzerat ; 
Stray Feathers, Vol. IV, p. 4; Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol IX, 
p. 421; Game Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 59; Swinhoe and 
Barnes, Central India; Ibis, 1885, p. 131. 
THE PAINTED SAND GROUSE. 
Length, 10 to 11:25 ; expanse, 19°5 to 22°5 ; wing, 6:4 to 7 ; tail, 
3:25 to 3°75 ; tarsus, 0°8 to 1; bill from gape, 0°55 to 0'7; weight, 
6 to 74 02. 
Bill brown to dark orange-red ; irides brown; feet dirty-yellow 
to pale orange-brown. 
Male, general ground color bright fulvous-yellow, the sides of 
the head, neck and breast, and shoulder of the wings plain and 
unspotted ; the back, scapulars, tertiaries and tail, banded with 
deep brown ; a narrow white band on the forehead, then a broadish 
black band, succeeded by another narrow white one, and then a 
narrow black band, widening behind the eye, and ending in a 
white spot; the occiput and nape with black streaks; quills 
brown-black, with narrow pale edgings ; the median and _greater- 
coverts of the wings and some of the secondaries broadly banded 
with inky-black, edged with white ;a triple band separates the 
fulvous of the breast from the abdomen, the first maroon, the 
second creamy-white, and the third unspotted chocolate-brown, 
which is the ground color of the abdominal region, vent, and 
under tail-coverts, each feather being tipped with white. 
The female differs in wanting the black and white bands on the 
head, the pectoral band, and the inky-black and white bars on the 
wings, the whole upper surface, the sides of the neck, breast, wings, 
and tail, being fulyous mixed with rufous, and finely barred 
with black; the chin, throat, ear-coverts, and some of the greater 
wing-coverts are unspotted fulvous; the lower part of the breast, 
and the whole abdominal region, very finely barred with choco- 
late-black and creamy-white. 
With the exception of Sind, the Painted Sand Grouse occurs 
throughout the region, but is very locally distributed; it is a 
permanent resident, breeding usually in April and May ; they 
