PIN-TAILED SAND GROUSE. 



131 



GALLING. 



Family TETRAONID^. {Bojiaparte.) 



Genus Pterocles. {Temminck.) 



Generic Characters. — Beak medium sized, compressed, slender in some 

 species; upper mandible straight, but curved near the point; nostrils basal, 

 half closed by a membrane, covered by the feathers of the forehead, open 

 below. Feet with short toes, the under one hardly developed and articulated 

 high up the tarsus; the three front toes united to the first articulation, 

 and edged with a membrane; the front of the tarsi covered with small 

 very short feathers, the rest naked. Claws very short, the hind one sharp 

 edged, those in front obtuse. Tail conical ; in some species the two middle 

 feathers are elongated in a thread-like manner. Wings long, terminated in 

 a point, the first primary the longest. 



PIN-TAILED SAND GROUSE. 



Pterocles alchata. 



Pterocles alchata, 

 ' ' setari'us, 

 Tetrao alchata, 



" caudacutiis, 



" chata, 

 Pteroculus alchata, 

 utSnas cata, 

 Ganga cata, 

 Chata-Fluglmhn, 

 La Gratidule, 



Stephens. 

 Temminck. 



LlNN^US. 



Gmelin. 



Pallas. 



Gray; H. L., 2467. 



Vieillot. 



Of the French. 



Of the Germans. 



Savi. 



Specific Characters.— Tdiil conical, and the two middle feathers prolonged 

 to a thin point. A broad rufous band bordered with black, darker in the 

 male, separates the chesnut-coloured throat from the pure white abdomen. 

 Length, from tip of beak to the end of the long, thin, tail feathers thirteen 



