294 



articulated above the plane of the anterior toes, wanting in a 

 few ; nails strong, blunt, and but slightly curved. 



FAMILY, Pteroclidae 



Bill somewhat slender and compressed ; wings lengthened and 

 pointed ; tarsus short, more or less plumed ; feet short ; hind-toe 

 rudimentary or wanting ; tail of sixteen feathers. 



GENUS, Pterocles, Temm. 



Bill small, slightly arched, the sides compressed ; nostrils basal 

 almost concealed by the frontal plumes ; wings long and pointed ; 

 the first and second quills longest ; tail moderate, wedge-shaped 

 or rcunded ; the central feathers often lengthened ; tarsi feathered 

 in front, reticulated posteriorly ; the anterior toes bare, united at 

 their base by membrane ; hind-toe minute, raised ; the claws 

 short, stout, very slightly curved. 



Pterocles arenarius, Pall. 



799. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 496 ; Butler, Guzerat ; 

 Stray Feathers, Vol. IV, p. 4 ; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of 

 Sind, p. 209 ; Game Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 47 ; Swinhoe and 

 Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, 1885, p. 131. 



THE LAKGE SAND GROUSE. 



Length, 13'25 to 1475 ; expanse, 27 to 30 ; wing, 9 to 10 ; tail, 

 4 to 5 ; tarsus, 1 to 1*25 ; bill from gape, 0'6 to 07 ; weight, 15 oz. 

 to 1J Ibs. 



Bill pale bluish-grey to dark plumbeous ; irides brown ; feet 

 earthy -grey to dark greyish plumbeous. 



Male, crown and middle of the nape brownish-grey with a 

 pinkish tinge ; rest of the upper parts mingled ashy and fulvous, 

 each feather being bluish-ashy in the middle, edged with fulvous, 

 giving a mottled appearance ; greater wing-coverts plain ochreous 

 or orange-buff, and the median-coverts also broadly edged with 

 the same ; quills and primary -coverts dark slaty, with black 

 shafts ; tail as the back, fulvous with black ashy bands ; 

 all the lateral tail-feathers tipped with white ; beneath, the 

 chin is deep chesnut, passing as a band under the ear-coverts 

 to the nape, and below this, on the middle of the throat, is 

 a small triangular patch of black ; the breast and sides of 

 the neck dull ashy, tinged with fulvous, with a narrow band 

 of black on the breast ; abdomen and vent deep black ; under tail- 

 coverts black, with white margins to the feathers ; tarsal plumes 

 pale yellowish. 



The female differs in having the whole "head and upper parts 

 with the breast fulvous, banded with brown ; the pectoral band 

 is narrower, and between that and the black of the abdomen is 

 unspotted ; the chin is fulvous,, with a narrow black edging and a 

 few black specks ; the under tail- coverts pale fulvous. 



