300 PTEROCLID^. 



secondaries hair-brown ; tertiaries vinous on their inner webs and 

 edged on the outer with buffish ; scapulars vinous at the base, 

 dark shafted with a subterminal dark band, and mesially tipped 

 with a nearly oval buff spot ; median wing-coverts the same, 

 the greater series greyish-buff or buffy-isabelline ; abdomen, 

 flanks, under wing-coverts, vent, and lower tail-coverts, white, 

 slightly soiled on the middle of the abdomen, and in some speci- 

 mens a pale isabelline ; tarsal plumes white. 



The female has the throat and sides of the neck orange-buff ; 

 the chin paler and nearly albescent ; the crown very pale 

 cinnamon ; entire upper-surface buff, with, in some specimens, 

 a vinous tinge and barred with numerous crescentic and broken 

 bands of dark brown ; breast and under parts paler buff, also with 

 crescentic bands ; the flanks albescent ; scapulars largely blotched 

 with dusky and with buff tips ; primaries and secondaries as in the 

 male, but very pale, or hair-brown. 



It is only on the confines of Sind that the Coronetted Sand 

 Grouse has been procured and that but rarely. It is of course 

 only a cold weather visitant, but further north in Southern 

 Afghanistan I was so fortunate as to procure two batches of 

 eggs. They measured 1'63 inches in length by 1*07 in 

 breadth. 



Pterocles exustus, Tem. 



802. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 502 ; Butler, Guzerat ; 

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

 p. 421; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 210; Game 

 Birds of India, Vol I, p. 69 ; Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India; 

 Ibis, 1885, p. 131. 



THE COMMON SAND GROUSE. 



Length, 11 to 1375 ; expanse, 21 to 22'5 ; wing, 6'5 to 7*5; 

 tail, 4 to 5'9 ; tarsus, 0'8 to 1 ; bill from gape, 0'6 to 07 ; weight, 

 7J to 10 oz. 



Bill pale slaty-grey to pale plumbeous or lavender-blue ; irides 

 dark brown ; feet same as bill. 



Male, general colour fulvous-isabelline, brighter and more 

 yellow about the lores, face, and chin, and mixed with dusky- 

 greenish on the back, wing and upper tail-coverts ; primaries 

 black, the tips of all, except the first three, white, broader on 

 the inner web ; a longitudinal median line on the wing, formed 

 by some of the coverts and secondaries being brighter buff; 

 tail with the central pair of feathers elongated and highly 

 attenuated, isabelline-yellow, the lateral feathers deep brown ; 

 edged and tipped with pale fulvous ; a narrow black band on the 

 breast ; abdomen deep chocolate brown (burnt or singed 

 color, hence exustus), paling on the vent, as are the tarsal 

 plumes. 



The female has the whole upper plumage, including the tail 

 feathers (except a plain bar on the wing^ formed by the greater- 



