PTEROCLIDiE. 497 



Bill bluish ; feet dull yellow ; irides dark brown. Length 12£ 

 to 13^ inches ; wing 9± ; tail 4 ; tarsus 1|-. The wings reach 

 nearly to the end of the tail, which has the two central feathers 

 very slightly lengthened and pointed. Weight 17 to 18^ ounces. 



The female differs in having the whole head and upper parts, 

 with the breast, fulvous, banded with brown; the pectoral band is 

 narrower ; and between that and the black of the abdomen is 

 unspotted ; the chin is fulvous, with a narrow black edging and a 

 few black specks ; the under tail-coverts pale fulvous. She is 

 said to be a little smaller, but one writer in the Bengal Sporting 

 Magazine states that she is heavier than the male. 



This fine Sand-grouse is found, within our limits, only in the 

 N. W. Provinces and Sindh, rarely extending so low as Allaha- 

 bad, tolerably abundant in the Punjab, and said to be very 

 numerous towards the edges of the great desert. It is recorded 

 in the Bengal Sporting Magazine as common in the Doab between 

 the Ganges and Jumna, near Futteyghur, in Eohilcund, but more 

 common west of the Jumna, near Ferozepore, in Hurriana, and in 

 various parts of the Punjab. I have heard of its having been 

 killed near Nusseerabad, and also in Rhandeish. It is only a 

 winter visitant to India, arriving towards the end of September, 

 and leaving in March. It frequents extensive open sandy plains, 

 flies in vast flocks, being said to be more abundant than P. exustus 

 in those parts where it does occur. Like the others of this tribe, it 

 goes regularly to certain spots on the banks of rivers or tanks to 

 drink, which it does twice a day, and it is fond of basking in the 

 sun and rolling on the sand. One writer records that he saw them 

 about sunrise leave their roosting places among sand hills, and 

 collect in thousands on a hard bare plain, close to where they usually 

 drank, but that they were neither feeding nor drinking at that 

 early hour, and came there, he suggests, for the sake of basking in 

 the early sun's rays. It feeds on grassy plains, and also on stubble 

 fields, and does so especially immediately after drinking. 



The flight of this Sand-grouse is said to be amazingly strong and 

 rapid, and, when roused, it flies to great distances. It is generally 

 said to be a shy and wary bird, and difficult to approach closely, 

 from the open nature of the country it affects. It is highly 



PART II. 3 R 



