THE SHORT-TAILED SAND-GROUSE. 1 7 



narrowly margined with white. A broad black bar, edged On 

 both sides with white, passes up the middle of the throat and 

 surrounds the gape ; eyebrow-stripe white and black ; chest 

 uniform buff-grey. Total length, 8*8 inches; wing, 6-4 • tail, 

 27; tarsus, t. 



Adult Female. — Distinguished from the male by having the 

 chin and throat uniform buff, or with a few small black spots ; 

 the eyebrow-stripe wanting • and the chest buff, barred with 

 black. Total length, 8 '6 inches ; wing, 6'i ; tail, 2 "6 ; tarsus, 1. 



Range.— This species is found over a somewhat restricted 

 area compared with that of the preceding species, and has 

 only been met with about Lake Jipi and Mount Kilimanjaro 

 in East Africa, and westwards on the Wembaere Steppes in 

 Masai-land. It has also been sent from Nassa, in Speke 

 Gulf, on the Victoria Nyanza, by the Rev. E. H. Hubbard. 



III. THE VARIEGATED SAND-GROUSE. PTEROCLES VARIEGATUS. 



Plerocles variegatus, Smith, Rep. Exped. Centr. Afr. p. 56 

 (1836); id. Zool. S. Afr. Aves, pi. x. (1838); Ogilvie- 

 Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 22 (1893). 



Adult Male. — Belly dull rufous ; the feathers of the feet 

 uniform buff, not barred with black or brown ; under tail- 

 coverts uniform ; upper surface of the shaft of the first flight- 

 feather white ; upper- and under-parts of the body spotted with 

 white ; the eyebrow-stripe, chin, and throat slate-grey. Total 

 length, 9*8 inches; wing, 6't, ; tail, 2-8; tarsus, 1. 



Adult Female. — Distinguished from the male by having the eye- 

 brow-stripe, chin, and throat pale buff, and the belly indistinctly 

 barred with white. Total length, 9*8 inches; wing, 6*3 ; tail, 

 2"8 ; tarsus, 0*95. 



Range. — South Africa, extending eastwards to the Transvaal 

 and west to Damaraland. 



Habits. — Ayres met with numbers of pairs of this beautiful 

 little species along the Crocodile River in June, showing that 

 9 c 



