S'2'4< Contributions to the Ornithology of India, Sfc. 



but paler ; the lores and feathers immediately encircling the eye, 

 pale isabelline white ; the whole upper parts and the neck all 

 rotind pure isabelline, ting-ed slightly rufous on the occiput, nape, 

 and back, and conspicuously spotted with dull, somewhat greyish, 

 black ; the spots on the forehead and front part of the 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 striated 

 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 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 feather 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, wing lining, &c., are as in the male, but somewhat 

 purer and paler; and the abdominal patch is narrower and per- 

 haps also somewhat paler. 



This species has previously only been obtained in Northern 

 Africa and North- Western Arabia. 



I notice that Mr. Gould^s figure, and indeed all the figures 

 that I have seen of this species represent the bird as very much 

 stouter and clumsier than it really is ; they are really compara- 

 tively very slim, slender creatures, very unlike the broad massive- 

 chested partridge like arenarltts. 



801 ^er.— Pterocles coronatus, LicU.—Pl. Col. 



339, S40.— Gould. Birds, Asia, IIL, pi. 7. 



I never myself was fortunate enough to secure this handsome 

 sand grouse ; but it is at one season at any rate not uncommon 

 in the extreme North- West of Sindh about Jacobabad, and one 

 of the officers there, Captain Loch, very kindly gave me a skin 

 of a male which he had shot shortly before my arrival. This 

 species has hitherto, only I believe, been sent from Nubia, Algeria, 

 and North- Western Arabia. 



The dimensions of the male I obtained taken from the dried 

 skin were as follows : length, about 12 ; wing, 7"1, tail from 

 vent, 375 ; bill at front, 0-45 ; tarsus, 0-95. 



The male has the point of the forehead white, tinged with 

 isabelline, and a broad black stripe running upwards from the 

 gape on either side of this ; from the ends of these stripes a broad 

 pale bluish grey band runs over the eyes and ear coverts, and 

 round the nape. The chin, and the base of both mandibles and a 



