CHLAMYDOTIS UNDULATA MACQUEENII 189 



Hume records the measurements as " Length 25 to 27'5 inches, 

 expanse 47 to 51, wing 14"25 to 15'25, tail from vent 7'75 to 9'2o, 

 tarsus 315 to .S'G, bill from gape 20 to 25. Weight 2 lbs. 10 ozs. to 

 3 lbs. 12 ozs." 



Young- Birds. — " Can always be recognized from the adult female, 

 which they most resemble, by the sandy-coloured arrow-head mark- 

 ings which pervade the whole of the upper plumage. The frill is 

 always very small, the crest on the head is represented only by a few 

 elongated feathers, which are only recognized by somewhat coarser 

 black freckling, and the white of the primaries is distinctly inclined 

 to sandy-buff; in some specimens there is an indication of a black 

 band on the feathers of the fore neck." {Sharpe). 



Distribution. — The Houbara is, so far as is yet known, only a cold 

 weather visitant to the plains of India, being found throughout the 

 Punjab, Eajputana, Sind, Cutch and Northern Guzerat. Gates 

 defines its eastern limit as a line drawn from Delhi on the Jumna 

 river to Baroda, but Hume has recorded having shot one himself in 

 the Meerut district, east of the Jumna, and doubtless other occa- 

 sional birds will be met with as far east as this bird. 



Outside India it is found in west Central Asia as far west as 

 Mesopotamia, whence it straggles commonly into south-eastern 

 Europe and more rarely into northern and western Europe, as far 

 as the British Isles, Persia, Central Asia, as far south as Afghanistan 

 and Baluchistan (throughout the year) and the highlands of West 

 and North-west China, breeding as close to Indian limits as the 

 Persian Gulf and Afghanistan and Beluchistan. 



Nidification.— The Houbara breeds in Afghanistan, Beluchistan, 

 Persia and the Persian Gulf westwards almost to Palestine. It has 

 never yet been found breeding actually within Indian limits, but it is 

 quite possible it may yet be found to breed occasionally in Sind. 

 H. E. Barnes records : — 



" I feel sure that a few at least remain to breed, both in Sind and 

 Cutch ; a friend of mine avers that he has seen eggs in the latter 

 place, but as he did not preserve them, he may have made a mistake ; 

 but he is too good a sportsman not to know a Houbara when he sees 

 one. Mr. Doig had excellent reasons for believing that the Houbara 

 bred in the desert between Godra and Renahoe." 



