PTEKOCLID^E. 299 



head are small and irregular ; on the nape and occiput they are 

 more or less arranged in rows (so as to produce more of a striat- 

 ed appearance) and in a band running from behind the eye 

 round the nape, they are very much more densely set ; on the 

 upper tail-coverts they are much larger, while on the scapulars 

 they take the form of double spots or irregular bars ; the 

 primaries and their greater coverts are much as in the male, but 

 paler ; the central tail-feathers are isabelline dark shafted ; the 

 points greyish black, and the rest of the feathers with narrow, 

 transverse, irregular bars of the same color on both webs ; the 

 lateral tail-feathers are much as in the male, but have the basal 

 portions more tinged with isabelline, and more or less imperfectly 

 barred ; the breast, abdomen, and wing lining are as in the 

 male, bnt somewhat purer and paler ; the abdominal patch is 

 narrower and perhaps also somewhat paler. 



Within our limits, the Spotted Sand Grouse is only common in 

 Sind, but stragglers occasionally find their way into portions of 

 Guzerat and even Raj pu tana. 



A few apparently remain to breed in Sind, but most of them 

 are mere cold weather visitants. 



Pterocles coronatus, >Licht. 



SQlter. Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 206 ; Game 

 Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 57. 



THE CORONETTED SAND GROUSE. 



Length, 10 to 1175 ; wing, 7 to 7'5 ; expanse, 22 ; tarsus, 0'9 ; 

 bill at front, 0'45 ; bill at gape, 0'65. 



Bill pale slaty ; irides brown ; legs clayey-slate, with china- 

 white scutse. 



A line on each side of the forehead from the nostrils to above 

 the eye black, and a pale fulvous one between these from the 

 point of the forehead ; crown of the head pale chestnut, vinous 

 or rufescent fawn ; a pearly grey band fro^n the anterior angle of 

 the eye, continued as a supercilium and extending round to the 

 nape ; lores and a narrow band edging the black chin and throat- 

 stripe, white ; sides of the face, ear-coverts, and the neck all 

 round orange-buff; base of the neck and upper back isabelline, 

 the feathers edged dusky grey ; inter scapulars the same, with 

 median buffy spots at the tips ; rump and upper tail-coverts a 

 dark or dirty grey, mixed with the fulvous of the base of the 

 feathers ; tail with median rectrices of a pale vinous color, dark 

 shafted, with a subterminal dark spot, and very narrowly tipped 

 with white ; lateral feathers deeper vinous with also a subterminal 

 dark bar, and broadly tipped with white ; all the feathers with 

 a few dusky sprinkles behind the dark band ; primaries and their 

 coverts dull grey or dusky brown ; all the primaries, except the 

 first three, broadly margined with fulvous- white obliquely to- 

 wards the tips on their inner webs, and also tipped the same ; 



