6 JO URNAL, B 0MB A Y NA TUBAL HIST. SO CIBTY, Vol. XXIII. 



hogdanoioi and that from Northern Persia Ft. a. severtzoivi but I 

 cannot myself see that the birds from these areas vary in any way. 

 It would certainly be easy to select 10 birds from South Persia 

 and adjoining countries, 10 others from Trans Caucasia and Trans 

 Caspia, and yet 10 others from South Eussia and shew each series 

 to be quite separate; but it would then be equally easy to take 10 

 birds from each area and to shew in each series specimens of every 

 type. 



Distribution. — For a long time, possibly owing to the paucity of 

 material available for comparison, it was considered that the form of 

 this Sand-Grouse found in Northern Africa was the same as that 

 found in South-Western Europe; but Whitaker, in his "Birds of 

 Tunisia " pointed out that, strange to say, the bird in Northern 

 Africa was not the same as his cousin just across the water in 

 Southern West Europe, but was the same as that found to the East 

 in Western Asia. 



The British Museum has a magnificent series of both Asiatic and 

 Spanish birds, but is very badly off for African specimens. This 

 link is supplied by the collection in the Tring museum, where we 

 have 7 specimens from Tunis and 2 from Morocco, with other speci- 

 mens from Palestine, Lenkoran (Trans Caucasia), Merv (Trans 

 Caspia^, Bokhara and East Persia and South Eussian Steppes. 



These are all, obviously, the same sub-species and they are, 

 equally obviously, different from birds taken in Spain and France, 

 which are brighter above, owing to the large amount of yellow 

 marking, and are also more richly and darkly coloured below. 



The area of distribution of our Indian bird, therefore, extends 

 from the North- West of India, through Baluchistan, Afghanistan 

 and Persia, across the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus Mountains into 

 the South Rtissian Steppes and throughout Eastern Asia Minor and 

 again, due West through Southern Persia and Arabia into Northern 

 Africa, through Abyssinia, Nubia, Egypt, the Sahara and as far 

 West as Morocco. 



The Spanish form, on the other hand, is confined to Portugal, 

 Spain and France, where it is common, and straggles into Italy, 

 Germany and Greece. Whether the bird which has been obtained 

 in Cjrprus and Malta belongs to the African or West European form 

 there is nothing on record to shew. 



I have seen but few French skins, but Paul Paris in his " Oiseaux 

 de France " records that this is a common resident, nesting regularly 

 in that country. 



Within Indian limits the Large Pin-tailed Sand-Grouse occurs in 

 enormous numbers in the North West and Sind in the Trans Indus 

 country ; in great numbers also, in the Punjab, between the Indus 

 and the Ohenab, after which it becomes less common towards the 

 Gara and the Beas, though still constantly and regularly met with, 



