PTEROCLES CORONATUS ATRATUS 267 



round the hind-neck as a rather indistinct collar. Whole upper 

 surface dull sandy-buff, each feather barred with black, those of the 

 upper back being also subedged black, and having a small black 

 centre spot. Inner secondaries and coverts like the back but with 

 the ground a clearer buff ; primaries and primary-coverts coloured 

 like those of the male ; under wing-coverts and axillaries white. 

 Breast dull-buff, each feather subedged black, forming crescentic 

 bars which gradually become less and less defined until they are 

 mere dots on the stomach and thighs, and disappear altogether on 

 the under tail-coverts and tarsi ; the feathers round the vent and the 

 extreme bases of the under tail-coverts are dull reddish-brown. 



The extent of the yellow on the throat and neck varies equally 

 in both sexes ; otherwise Asiatic females vary above very little 

 inter se, and this only as regards the general tone, some birds being 

 darker than others, owing to the amount of black marking being 

 greater, and again some birds are very lightly marked on the 

 abdomen. Western female birds are distinguishable as easily as 

 the males, having a beautiful vinous-pink tinge above and below 

 with fewer black bars and spots. 



The females in the Tring Museum show the differences if anything 

 even more distinctly than the males. 



Measurements.— The females average slightly smaller than the 

 males. Asiatic specimens. — Wing 7"24 inches ( = 183'9 mm.), tarsus 

 •87 (^ -22 mm.), and bill at point '44 ( = 'll mm.). African 

 specimens have these parts averaging 7'41 ( — '188 mm.), I'Ol 

 { = 256 mm.) and "49 ( = 12-1 mm.) respectively. Ogilvie-Grant 

 gives the average of the wings of the females in the British Museum 

 as 6'6 ( = 167"8 mm.) only. 



The Tring Museum has more African specimens of the Coronetted 

 8and-Grouse than the British Museum, and these have been placed 

 at my disposal by Lord Kothschild for examination. 



In 1902, Dr. Ernest Hartert described, in the bulletin of the 

 British Ornithologists' Club for February, our Indian bird as a sub- 

 species of Pt. coronatus, and gave it the name of Pt. coronatus 

 atratus ; and this is the name our bird will have to bear. 



An examination of all the material available to me seems to 

 show that this species is divisible into three races or subspecies. 



