60 PTEEOCLID^E. 



Habits, <$fc. This handsome Sand-Grouse is usually seen in India 

 in very large flocks ; it is shy and wary, flies swiftly, and frequently 

 utters a loud clanging cry. It does not breed in India. 



1321. Pteroclurus exustus. The Common S'and-Grome. 



Pterocles exustus, Temm. PL Col. nos. 354, 360 (1825) ; Blyth, Cat. 

 p. 249 ; Jerdon, B. 1. iii, p. 502 ; Stanford, J. A. ti. B. xxxviii, 



iv, p. 4; ix, p. 421 ; Hume 8f Marsh. Game B. i, p. 69, pi. ; Hume, 

 S.F. vii, p. 161; Ball, ibid. p. 225; Hume, Cat. no. 802; Reid, 

 S. F. x, p. 61 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 300 ; id. Jour. Bom. N. If. 

 Soc. i, p. 55 ; v, p. 336 ; Oaten in Humes N. Sf E. 2nd ed. iii, 

 p. 361. 



Pteroclurus exustus, Ball, S. F. ii, p. 426 ; Oyilvie Grant, Cat. B. M. 

 xxii, p. 12. 



Bhat-titar, Bakht-titar, Kumartit, Kahar, H. ; Buiabur, Batibun, 

 Sind ; Popandi, Bhil ; Pakorade, Mahr. ; Jam polanka, Tel. ; Kal aowjal 

 haki, Can. (Mysore) ; Kal kondari, Tarn. 



Fig. 10. Head of P. exustus. 



Coloration. Male. Upper parts brownish buff to isabelline ; fore- 

 head, lores, and sides of head, chin, and throat dull ochreous-buff ; 

 ends of the scapulars and tertiaries and all the secondary-coverts 

 pale buff, the scapulars and some of the median coverts tipped with 

 reddish brown, a few of the coverts thus tipped with a white streak 

 inside the tip ; primary-coverts, primaries, and most of the second- 

 aries blackish brown, the later primaries obliquely tipped with 

 white ; middle tail-feathers brown with long black tips, the other 

 rectrices darker brown with white tips ; breast buff with a slight 

 rufous tinge, crossed by a black gorget narrowly edged with white 

 in front ; the buff passes into the dark brown of the abdomen and 

 flanks, blackish in the middle of the abdomen ; tarsal feathers, 

 vent, and under tail-coverts very pale buff; wing-lining dark 

 brown. 



Female buff ; crown and neck all round spotted with black 

 shaft-stripes, broader at the end ; rest of upper parts, except 

 greater secondary-coverts, barred with black ; scapulars and some 

 of the coverts with larger yellowish-buff ends tipped with brown ; 

 quills as in male ; tail-feathers barred, the middle pair with black, 

 the others with white tips ; chin, throat, and sides of head, 



