62 PTEROCLIDjE. 



Pterocles guttatus, Licht. Verz. Doubl. p. 64 (1823) ; Blyt7i, Ibis, 1872, 



p. 89. 



Pteroclurus senegallus, Ogilvie Grant, Cat. B. M. xxii, p. 14. 

 Nandu Katingo, Gutu, Sind. 



Coloration. Male. Crown, back, and rump Isabel! ine ; forehead, 

 supercilia (with narrow band below eye), and nape, forming a band 

 surrounding the crown, dull pale ashy ; lores whitish ; scapulars, 

 tertiaries, median and greater secondary-coverts purplish brown, 

 buif at the tips, the tips of the longer scapulars ochreous yellow ; 

 lesser coverts, primary-coverts, and primaries buff, the latter brown 

 towards the end, all except the first two or three with oblique pale 

 tips ; greater coverts dark, except on the edge ; upper tail-coverts 

 isabelline washed with yellow ; middle tail-feathers the same with 

 long black points, the other tail-feathers dark brown with oblique 

 white tips; chin, throat, cheeks, and sides of neck deep ochreous 

 yellow ; lower parts from throat buff, greyish on the upper breast ; 

 middle of abdomen to vent blackish brown. 



Female buff, the upper parts and upper breast spotted with 

 black, the spots becoming bands on the scapulars, tertiaries, and 

 middle tail-feathers ; tertiaries tinged with yellow towards the 

 ends ; wings, outer tail-feathers, and lower parts except upper 

 breast as in male. 



Bill bluish grey ; irides brown : orbits yellowish ; feet bluish 

 white (Hume). 



Length of male about 14 ; tail 5'75 ; wing 7'75 ; tarsus -9 ; bill 

 from gape '65. Length of female about 13 ; tail 4-25 : \ving 

 7'75. The middle tail-feathers are about 2 inches longer than the 

 others in males, 1 inch or less in females. 



Distribution. Northern Africa to south of the Sahara and South- 

 western Asia. Common in Sind west of the Indus, rare to the east- 

 ward, but recorded from the neighbourhood of the B/urm of Cutch, 

 including Kattywar, and from Jamboghora, west of Ahmedabad ; 

 also from Pokaran between Jeysuhnere and Jodhpore, and from 

 Shahpur district in the Punjab. Mhow is given as a locality 

 in the British Museum. Catalogue for a specimen received from 

 Col. Swinhoe, but in error ; the specimen thus marked is really 

 from Pirchoki, below the Bolan Pass. 



Habits. Similar to those of P. exustus. Generally resident, but 

 not known to breed east of the Indus ; and it is said that even in 

 Western Sind the majority are cold-weather visitors. I obtained an 

 egg, fully formed and measuring 1'5 by 1*05, from a female I shot 

 \\est of Shikarpur on March 20, 1875. 



Genus SYERHAPTES, Illiger, 1811. 



The present genus is distinguished by wanting the hallux and 

 by having very short broad toes feathered above, the tarsus is 

 thickly feathered throughout, the middle tail-feathers are long and 

 /pointed, and the wings long. 



Only two species are known ; both inhabit Central Asia, and one 

 just comes within our limits in Western Tibet. 



