392 PIGEONS AND SAND-GROUSE. 



Minor to India, while an allied western form (P. pyrenaicwi) is met with in North 

 Africa and South- Western Europe. Although the two are very similar, the western 

 bird has the wide chestnut band across the breast much darker, and the marginal 

 lines round the smaller feathers of the wing pale yellow instead of white. In both, 

 the under-parts are pure white, and the males have the throat black and the upper- 

 parts dull olive blotched with yellow ; while in the females the throat is white and 

 the upper-parts are barred with black. The eastern form is a cold- weather visitant 

 to the north-west of India, where some of the sand-grouse habitually associate in 

 such countless numbers, Mr. Hume stating that he has seen flocks of at least ten 

 thousand, while similar observations have been made in Mesopotamia and on the 

 shores of the Persian Gulf. 



Common A third member of the pin- tailed group is the common sancl- 



Sand-Grouse. g rouse (P. exustus], which has the general colour of the plumage 

 yellowish buff, shading into dark brown on the under-parts in the male, while in 

 the female the breast and upper-parts of the back are spotted w r ith brownish black, 

 and the rest of the upper surface barred with the same colour. This bird has a 

 very wide range, inhabiting the whole of India in localities where the rainfall is 

 moderate, the soil fairly dry, and the country open and tolerably level, and extend- 

 ing westwards across Asia and Northern Africa to Senegal. 



W. E. OGILVIE GRANT. 



