PTEROCLmUS. 61 



including supercilia, yellowish buff unspotted ; upper breast spotted 

 with dark brown down to a rather broken blackish gorget, behind 

 this a broad band of plain buff; abdomen barred dark brown and 

 rufous, darkest in the middle ; tarsi and lower tail-coverts buff ; 

 wing-lining brown. 



Young birds are at first rufous with black markings, then barred 

 rather irregularly and much like the adult female, but without a 

 gorget ; the abdomen is dark from an early age. 



Bill and feet pale slaty grey to plumbeous or lavender-blue : 

 irides dark brown ; orbital skin pale yellow to pale yellowish 

 green. 



Length of male about 12-5 ; tail 4 '4-5-8 ; wing 7 ; tarsus 

 85; bill from gape -65. Length of female about 11*5; tail 

 4 to 4-8 ; wing 6*75. The middle tail-feathers are 1*5 to 2'5 

 longer than the others in males, about an inch or less in females. 



Distribution. Resident throughout a large portion of Africa, 

 South-western and Central Asia, and the Indian Peninsula, with 

 the exception of the Bombay and Malabar coastland, the forest 

 regions east of 80 E. long., and Bengal, in which only stragglers 

 are occasionally found. I have seen this Sand-Grouse near 

 Eaneegunje, and Dr. G. King once saw one in the Botanical 

 Gardens, Calcutta. To the south I have seen many, and shot 

 some a little north of the Cauvery near Trichinopoly. This bird 

 is common in North-western India and the Deccan. 



Habits, $*c. The Common Sand-Grouse keeps to open country ; 

 it is never found in forest, and but rarely amongst bush. It flies 

 to water and drinks between 8 and 10 o'clock in the morning, 

 earlier in summer than in winter, and from 4 to 6 in the evening. 

 The birds feed before and after drinking, and keep in open sandy 

 ground during the day. Hume, in the admirable account in 

 ' Game Birds,' says they feed in different ground after drinking. 

 They rest about midday, each in a nook beside a clod of earth or 

 tuft of grass, but they sleep at night in flocks huddled together, 

 and but rarely fall a prey to foxes or jackals. They have a double 

 clucking note, uttered on the wing when they are alarmed or when 

 they are flying to or from water. The principal breeding-season 

 in the North-west is from April to June, but earlier in the Deccan, 

 and eggs have been found at all seasons. The eggs are grey 

 or pinkish or pale olive-brown, double-spotted, and measure about 

 1-45 by 1-03. 



1322. Pteroclurus senegallus. The Spotted Sand-Grouse. 



Tetrao senegallus, Linn. Mantissa, p. 526 (1767-71). 



Pterocles senegallus, Jerdon, B. 1 iii, p. 504 ; Hume, S. F. i, p. 221 ; 

 ii, p. 331 ; iv, p. 4 ; James, S. F. iii, p. 418 ; Butler, S. F. iv, p. 508 ; 

 v, p. 2'2'2 ; Hayes Lloyd, Ibis, 1876, p. 280 ; Hume, S. F. v, p. 60 ; 

 vii, p. 161 ; id. Cat. no. 801 bis ; Hume fy Marsh. Game B. i, 

 p. 53, pi. ; iii, pi. 3 (eg?) ; Tufnell, S. F. ix, p. 200; Swinhoe, Ibi*, 

 1882, p. 118; Barnes,' Birds Bom. p. 297 ; Oates in Hume's N. fy 

 E. 2nd ed. iii, p. 366. 



