PTEROCLIM:. 295 



The Large or Black-bellied Sand Grouse is found during the 

 winter months, in Sind, Guzerat, and Rajputana. They frequent 

 open sandy plains, and are, if they have been much worried, very 

 difficult to shoot. They go regularly to drink every morning, 

 and native shikaries, taking advantage of this, lie in ambush 

 and often succeed in slaughtering great numbers of them. 



They do not breed in India, but at Chaman, Southern 

 Afghanistan, I found them breeding freely during May and June. 

 They lay in slight depressions in the soil, and the eggs, three in 

 number, are similar to those of P. exustus, but are of course 

 much larger. They average 1'8 inches in length by about 

 1'25 in breadth. 



Pterocles fasciatus, Scop. 



800. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 498 ; Butler, Guzerat ; 



Stray Feathers, Vol. IV, p. 4 ; Deccan, Stray Fpathers, Vol IX, 



p. 421 ; Game Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 59 ; Swinhoe and 



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



THE PAINTED SAND GROUSE. 



Length, 10 to 11-25 ; expanse, 19'5 to 22'5 ; wing, 6'4to 7 ; tail, 

 3*25 to 375 ; tarsus, 0'8 to 1 ; bill from gape, 0'55 to 07 ; weight, 

 6 to 7J oz. 



Bill brown to dark orange-red ; irides brown ; feet dirty-yellow 

 to pale orange-brown. 



Male, general ground color bright fulvous-yellow, the sides of 

 the head, neck and breast, and shoulder of the wings plain and 

 unspotted ; the back, scapulars, tertiaries and tail, banded with 

 deep brown ; a narrow white band on the forehead, then a broadish 

 black band, succeeded by another narrow white one, and then a 

 narrow black band, widening behind the eye, and ending in a 

 white spot ; the occiput and nape with black streaks ; quills 

 brown-black, with narrow pale edgings ; the median and greater- 

 coverts of the wings and some of the secondaries broadly banded 

 with inkyrblack, edged with white ; a triple band separates the 

 fulvous of the breast from the abdomen, the first maroon, the 

 second crearny-white, and the third unspotted chocolate-brown, 

 which is the ground color of the abdominal region, vent, and 

 under tail-coverts, each feather being tipped with white. 



The female differs in wanting the black and white bands on the 

 head, the pectoral band, and the inky-black and white bars on the 

 wings, the whole upper surface, the sides of the neck, breast, wings, 

 and tail, being fulvous mixed with rufous, and finely barred 

 with black ; the chin, throat, ear-coverts, and some of the greater 

 wing-coverts are unspotted fulvous ; the lower part of the breast, 

 and the whole abdominal region, very finely barred with choco- 

 laJte-black and creamy-white. 



-With the exception of Sind, the Painted Sand Grouse occurs 

 throughout the region, but is very locally distributed ; it is a 

 permanent resident, breeding usually in April and May ; they 



