268 GAME-BIRDS OF INDIA 



I have examined, in the Tring and British Museums, thirty-nine 

 Asiatic birds and fifteen African birds, besides a further considerable 

 series in India of both sexes, for the difference in the three races is as 

 marked in the females as in the males. 



The Asiatic birds, with the exception of three from Palestine, are 

 birds with the dominant tone on the upper plumage buff and with 

 the dark markings very profuse, and therefore the general aspect of 

 the bird decidedly dark. 



The African birds, with the exception of one from the Nile, have 

 the back a most beautiful vinous-isabelline tint, the markings very 

 sparse, and the general aspect altogether paler than the Asiatic form. 



A single specimen from the Nile and three specimens from 

 Palestine are intermediate between these two races, having the upper 

 parts vinous as in Pt. c. coronatus but of a deeper tint and also rather 

 more marked with black. The bird from the Nile perhaps more 

 nearly approximates the African specimens, whilst the three from 

 Palestine are nearer the other Asiatic subspecies. 



The African birds, as I have already said, are also decidedly 

 larger than the Asiatic, the birds from Palestine and the Nile being 

 intermediate in size as well as colouration. Thus, all the African 

 birds examined have a wing averagmg J 7'92 inches, 5 7'48. The 

 Nile and Palestme birds, <^ 7'56, 2 7'31, and the Asiatic, including 

 the Indian birds measured, which are not in the British Museum 

 collection, 3 7-28, 2 705. 



Ogilvie-Grant has noted in reference to the differences above 

 referred to, " in some African specimens, the whole of the upper parts 

 are washed with vinaceous, and the black marks and bars on the 

 upper parts and chest are very much reduced, nearly absent on the 

 scapulars, while the throat, breast and belly are immaculate." 



Distribution. — Coronetted Sand-Grouse are found throughout 

 North-eastern Africa from Algeria and Tunis, in the north-west 

 through the Sahara and parts of the Soudan, Egypt, Nubia, the 

 Eastern Soudan and parts of Abyssinia, Arabia, Palestine, Persia, 

 Afghanistan, Beluchistan and so into India. 



Within Indian limits our subspecies atratiis is found in the 

 extreme north-west from Fort Jamrud at the mouth of the Khyber 

 Pass, in the North-west Provinces all along the country between the 



