186 PI^ROCLID^: r . .PTEROCLES 



643. Pterocles Yariegatus. Spotted Sandgrouse. 



Tetrao (Pterocles) variegatus, Burchell, Travels, ii, p. 345 (1824). 



Pterocles variegatus, Smith, Report Exped. C. Afr. p. 56 (1836) ; id. 

 III. Zool. 8. Afr. Aves, pi. x (1838) : Layard, B. 8. Afr. p. 279 

 (1867) ; id. Ibis, 1869, p. 375 ; Ayres, Ibis, 1871, p. 262 ; Gumey, in 

 Andersson's B. Damaraland, p. 242 (1872) ; Elliot, P. Z. 8. 1878, 

 p. 244; Shelley, Ibis, 1882, p. 360 [Bechuanaland]; Holub & Pelz., 

 Orn. Siid-Afr. p. 181 (1882) ; Sharpe ed, Layard' s B. 8. Afr. p. 578 

 (1884) ; Nicolls fy Eglington, Sportsm. 8. A. p. Ill, pi. xi, fig. 56 

 (1892) ; Grant, Cat. B. M. xxii, p. 22 (1893) ; id. Game Bds. i, 

 p. 17 (1896) ; Fleck, Journ. Ornith. 1894, p. 384 ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, 

 p. 184 (1896) ; Reichenow, Vog. Afr. i, p. 307 (1900). 

 " Gheel Patrijs" of Dutch (Nicolls & Eglington). 



Description. Adult Male. Crown of the head very dark brown 

 with pale buffy edges to the feathers ; back and wings ashy-black, 

 all the feathers largely tipped with olive-yellow ; a number of small 

 white spots, generally distributed throughout ; quills dusky with 

 white shafts, some of the inner ones with paler whitish tips, edge 

 of the wing pale rufous ; tail of fourteen feathers, dusky-black with 

 buff tips and cross-bars ; below, throat, lores and sides of the face, 

 above and below the eye, lilac-grey ; ear-coverts pale buff; breast 

 dull rufous, passing into buff on the abdomen and under tail-coverts ; 

 a number of round white spots on the breast, like those on the back. 



Iris dark brown ; eyelids gamboge ; bill black ; feet and claws 

 dusky-yellow. 



Length 9-25; wing 6-0; tail 3'0; tarsus 1-1; culrnen -35. 



The female differs from the male in having the chin, throat and 

 eye-stripes pale buff; the belly and thighs are pale rufous-buff, 

 indistinctly barred with white. 



Distribution. The Spotted Sandgrouse does not appear to have 

 been met with south of the Orange River ; but north of that river is 

 found throughout the western portion of our area as far as the 

 Okavango River, though nowhere very abundant. 



The following are recorded localities. Cape Colony near 

 Griquatown (Burchell, type), Kimberley (Brit. Mus.), Fourteen 

 Streams in Griqualand West (B. Hamilton), near Kuruman (Smith 

 and Exton) ; Transvaal on the Limpopo and Marico Rivers 

 (Ayres) ; Bechuanaland Limonie Pan near Bamangwato (Ayres), 

 Kalahari (Fleck) ; German South-west Africa Damaraland 

 (Andersson). 



Habits. This species, though less widely distributed and not so 

 common as the Namaqua Sandgrouse, resembles it in its habits, 



