PTEROCLES CORONATUS ATRATUS 269 



Indus and Afghanistan and Beluchistan in that province and in Sind. 

 Outside this comparatively narrow slip it has hardly ever been 

 obtained, although there are three specimens in the British Museum 

 collection obtained by Colonel Swinhoe in the Mhow district, vphich 

 is in Dhar, to the south of West Central India. 



Nidification. — Lieut. E. Barnes found the Coronetted Sand-Grouse 

 breeding in Chaman in Afghanistan. In this place he flushed a pair 

 of the sand-grouse both of which he shot, and at the spot from which 

 he flushed them he found three eggs, unfortunately too hard-set to 

 preserve, so we have no description of them beyond the fact that 

 they measured 1'5 inches X 1"06 (=38'1 X 27 mm.). 



There is another egg taken by the same collector which is now in 

 the British Museum. In colour this specimen is a very pale yellowish- 

 stone colour, rather than cream as described by Gates; the superior 

 markings consist of small blotches, spots and specks of pale vandyke- 

 brown, whilst the secondary or underlying spots are of pale lavender- 

 grey. Both are fairly equally distributed over the whole surface 

 of the egg, perhaps rather more numerously in the central portion, 

 where they also seem to average darker in tint. The shape is, of 

 course, the usual elliptical one of all Sand-Grouse, and the texture is 

 smooth and fine with a strong gloss. 



It measures 1"62 inches X 1'07 (^41 X 27'3 mm.) and was 

 taken at Chaman on the 27th May, 1908. Elsewhere Barnes 

 records the fact that these sand-grouse breed during May and June 

 in Chaman, south Afghanistan. 



Tristram found the African form breeding in the South Sahara. 

 He says : " I found it only in small companies of four or five, but this 

 may have been owing to the extreme scarcity of plants in the district 

 where it roams. The egg is of an ashy-white, with a few almost 

 obliterated pale-brown markings." 



Whitaker was never " fortunate enough to discover its eggs, but 

 apparently this species is a late breeder, and does not lay until the 

 middle of May." 



Loche states " that he has taken the eggs of this species, and that 

 they are of a pale-greyish colour, covered with indistinct violet-grey 

 and dull-rufous markings, and measure about 44 X 32 mm. ; but these 

 measurements seem more applicable to eggs of the larger species of 

 sand-grouse," 



