PTEROCLURUS. 59 



Barnes, S. F. ix, p. 458 ; id. Birds Bom. p. 297 ; St. John, Ibis, 

 1889, p. 174. 

 Pteroclurus alchata, Oyilvie Grant, Cat. B. M. xxii, p. 7. 



Coloration. Male. Crown light brown tinged with yellow ; chin, 

 throat, and a narrow line running back from the eye black ; rest 

 of head orange or rufous buff, passing on the neck into olivaceous 

 huff ; back and scapulars pale brown tinged with olive and marked 

 with large subterininal pale ochreous-yellow spots, especially on 

 the scapulars ; primary-coverts and small coverts brown, outer 

 secondary median and greater coverts with a subterminal chestnut 

 band bordered with white; innermost coverts brown washed with 

 yellow and with broad terminal black borders ; quills brownish 

 grey outside, the outer web of the first primary dark brown, 

 .the. shafts and the inner surface of all quills black, inner webs of 

 later primaries blackish externally towards the ends and bordered 

 with white : secondaries white, with a broad outer band of brown 

 extending to the tips of the inner webs ; rump and upper tail- 

 coverts narrowly banded pale yellowish and black ; rectrices greyish 

 brown tinged yellow and with partial bars of fawn-colour, the long 

 tips of the middle pair black, the other feathers tipped with white ; 

 two narrow black bars a considerable distance apart across the 

 breast, the space between them pale rufous ; lower breast, abdomen 

 and lower tail-coverts, axillaries and inner under wing-coverts 

 white, larger coverts and the border of the wing brown. 



Female. Upper parts barred black and yellowish buff, on the 

 back and scapulars each feather with a band, usually broad and 

 conspicuous, of pearly to slaty grey ; outer secondary-coverts white 

 with a black border ; on the inner coverts there is a ferruginous -red 

 band inside the black; upper tail-coverts with V-shaped bars; chin 

 and middle of throat white ; cheeks, sides of upper neck, and band 

 across throat dull ochreous-buff, followed by a broad black gorget, 

 then an ochreous and then a grey band, after which is a narrow 

 black gorget (the anterior one of the male), so that there are three 

 black bands altogether in the female. Remainder of lower parts, 

 quills, and tail as in the male. 



In young birds the upper parts- and breast are all narrowly and 

 irregularly barred. Immature males retain some of the bars ; 

 immature females have black instead of pearly-grey bars on the 

 back and coverts. 



Bill very stout, greenish brown to slate-colour ; irides brown ; 

 feet dusky green (Hume). 



Length about 15 ; tail in males 5-7, in females 3'75-6 ; wing 8 ; 

 tarsus 1 ; bill from gape '65. The middle tail-feathers are about 

 2 inches longer than the others in both sexes. 



Distribution. South-western and Central Asia ; a cold-season 

 visitor to the extreme North-west of India. This Sand-Grouse 

 occurs abundantly from October till March in the Western Punjab 

 and Northern Sind, and has been found as far as Delhi, Sambhar, 

 and Karachi. In North Africa and Southern Europe a more richly, 

 coloured race occurs. 



