Capt. Beavan on various Indian Birds. 377 



jeeling the species is only found in the warm beds of the rivers ; 

 mine were procured in the Great Rungeet Valley, and they do 

 not appear to go higher up the hills than the bamboo will 

 grow, an elevation of about 1200 to 2000 feet. 



799. Pterocles arenarius. Large Sand-Grouse. 



Found in some numbers about Umballah at certain seasons; 

 but when I was there (November 1866) they had not arrived. 

 However, some two score were sent down to the late Dr. Scott 

 by a civil engineer in railway employ at Jullunder, from which 



1 made the following notes : — 



T .1 \\T- m M Ti Bill from Bill from -n j. i 



Length. Win"'. lau. larsus. « , Ji,xtent. 



° ^ ft'ont. g'^pK- 



c? 14-5 8-0 4 , 1-0G25 -5 -75 27 



2 14-75 9 4-5 1-125 -5 -75 27 



An albinescent or g'MGsi-albinescent specimen (a presumed 

 female) differs from the rest in being all over of a light fulvous 

 colour, with the irides light grey instead of dark brown as 

 usual : the belly is brown instead of black ; and the dark mark- 

 ings usual to the females on the upper parts are in this speci- 

 men of a faint brown hue. 



Out of the forty originally sent, ten had expired on the road 

 on arrival at Umballah ; but the rest were well and healthy, and 

 out of these latter I selected a dozen, six of either sex, with the 

 view of taking them with me to England for the gardens of the 

 Zoological Society ; but two of them died before I reached Cal- 

 cutta, and I therefore started from that port, on the 20th 

 January 1867, with ten only, by the ship ' St. Lawrence,' and, 

 after a voyage of ninety-two days round the Cape of Good 

 Hope, reached England about the end of iVpril with only four 

 left alive, which were deposited in the Zoological Gardens; but 

 they did not survive for any length of time. On the voyage they 

 mostly killed themselves by jumping up and knocking their 

 heads against the top of the box-cage I had constructed for 

 them; so that I hope this hint, to have a net or something 

 soft stretched across the cage two-thirds of the height from 

 the bottom, may enable future collectors to bring them home 

 safely. 



At Jullunder these birds are caught in nets by the natives in 



