218 A HANDBOOK OF EUROPEAN BIRDS. 
Ll 
Family PTEROCLID. 
Genus PTEROCLES. 
BLACK-BELLIED SAND-GROUSE. 
Pterocles arenarius (Pal). 
Adult Male: Crown and nape grey, tinged with red; 
fore parts beneath grey, with an isabelline tinge, shading into 
vust-colour on upper throat; lower breast and abdomen black ; 
across the chest a transverse band of black ; feathers of upper 
parts dark grey or blackish, the tips broadly blotched with 
reddish-ochre ; wing-quills bluish-grey with black shafts ; some 
of inner primaries slightly tipped with white; outer webs of 
secondaries marked with orange ; tail brownish-ash colour, 
tipped with white and barred towards base with dark brown, 
central feathers brownish-grey ; under tail-coverts pale yellowish- 
white ; feathers on tarsus pale buff ; bill and irides dark brown ; - 
feet leaden-grey. Length about 14°5 inches; culmen 0°65 ; 
wing 9°2 ; fail g,; tarsus 1°25. 
Adult Female: Above sandy-ochreous, barred (or on 
head and hind neck streaked) with black ; fore parts beneath 
dull greyish-ochreous, becoming more rufous in tint on chest ; 
cheeks streaked like the crown, but more minutely ; upper 
throat crossed by a horizontal black stripe; chest spotted with 
black ; across the breast a black, horizontal band as in the 
male ; abdomen black; feathers on the tarsus dull yellow and 
on the under tail-coverts whitish. 
Young Male: Head, neck, breast and entire upper parts’ 
dull sandy-yellow or pale ochre, barred and marked with black ; 
feathers on the wing-coverts and breast with a subapical black 
bar following the contour of the feather; quills dull greyish- 
black, broadly tipped with dull clay, slightly marbled with 
blackish-brown ; secondaries dull yellowish-white except at the 
base, where they are white and broadly tipped with dull 
greyish-black, slightly marbled with dull fulvous; elongated 
inner secondaries marked like the dorsal feathers, but slightly 
washed with fulvous ; tail dull clay-yellow, marked with fulvous 
and barred with black ; abdomen black. 
