Sand- Grouse. 39 



usual elliptical and very glossy. The 

 ground-colour varies from light stone- 

 colour to buff. The underlying shell- 

 marks consist of blotches of very pale 

 purple, and the surface-marks are reddish 

 brown in some cases, plain brown in 

 others. These surface-marks vary in size 

 from dots and small spots to blotches and 

 smears of considerable size, and they are 

 in all cases pretty evenly distributed over 

 the egg. In size the eggs vary from 17 

 to 2 in length, and from 1*25 to 1*35 in 

 breadth. 



The male bird has the crown and the 

 back and sides of the neck brownish grey. 

 The upper plumage is mingled dark grey 

 and fulvous, the feathers being grey with 

 broad fulvous tips, and there is a large 

 patch of fulvous on the wing. The quills 

 of the wing are dark slaty. The tail- 

 feathers are fulvous barred with black and 

 ashy and broadly tipped with white. The 

 throat is chestnut, and this colour extends 

 down the neck and is bounded by a black 

 band. The foreneck and breast are 

 fulvous grey, and a black band crosses the 

 middle of the breast. The belly and the 

 sides of the body are deep black, and 

 the .thighs and the feathers under the tail 

 are white. 



