186 PTEEOCLIDa: PTEUOCLES 



643. Pterocles variegatus. Spotted Sandgrouse. 



Tetrao (Pterocles) variegatus, Burchell, Travels, ii, p. 345 (1824). 



Pterocles variegatus, Smith, Beport Exped. C. Afr. p. 56 (1836) ; id. 

 III. Zool. 8. Afr. Aves, pi. x (1838) ; Layard, B. 8. Afr. p. 279 

 (1867) ; id. Ibis, 1869, p. 375 ; Ayres, Ibis, 1871, p. 262 ; Ourney, in 

 Andersson's B. Damaraland, p. 242 (1872) ; Elliot, P. Z. 8. 1878, 

 p. 244; Shelley, Ibis, 1882, p. 360 [Beohuanaland] ; Holub & Pelz., 

 Orn. Sud-Afr. p. 181 (1882) ; Sharps ed. Layard's B. 8. Afr. p. 578 

 (1884) ; Nicolls Sf Eglington, Sportsm. 8. A. p. Ill, pi. xi, fig. 56 

 (1892); Grant, Cat. B. M. xxii, p. 22 (1893); id. Game Bds. i, 

 p. 17 (1896) ; FlecJc, Journ. Ornith. 1894, p. 384 ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, 

 p. 184 (1896) ; Beichenow, Vbg. Afr. i, p. 307 (1900). 

 " Gheel Patrijs " of Dutch (Nicolls & Eglington). 



Description. Adult Male. — Crown of the head very dark brown 

 with pale buffy edges to the feathers ; back and wings ashy-black, 

 all the feathers largely tipped with olive-yellow ; a number of small 

 white spots, generally distributed throughout ; quills dusky with 

 white shafts, some of the inner ones with paler whitish tips, edge 

 of the wing pale rufous ; tail of fourteen feathers, dusky-black with 

 buff tips and cross-bars ; below, throat, lores and sides of the face, 

 above and below the eye, lilac-grey ; ear-coverts pale buff; breast 

 dull rufous, passing into buff on the abdomen and under tail-coverts ; 

 a number of round white spots on the breast, like those on the back. 



Iris dark brown ; eyelids gamboge ; bill black ; feet and claws 

 dusky-yellow. 



Length 9'25 ; wing 6-0 ; tail 3-0 ; tarsus 1-1 ; culmen -35. 



The female differs from the male in having the chin, throat and 

 eye-stripes pale buff; the belly and thighs are pale rufous-buff, 

 indistinctly barred with white. 



Distribution. — The Spotted Sandgrouse does not appear to have 

 been met with south of the Orange Eiver ; but north of that river is 

 found throughout the -western portion of our area as far as the 

 Okavango Eiver, though nowhere very abundant. 



The following are recorded localities. Cape Colony — near 

 Griquatown (Burchell, type), Kimberley (Brit. Mus.), Fourteen 

 Streams in Griqualand West (B. Hamilton), near Kuruman (Smith 

 and Bxton) ; Transvaal— on the Limpopo and Marico Eivers 

 (Ayres) ; Bechuanaland — Limonie Pan near Bamangwato (Ayres), 

 Kalahari (Fleck) ; German South-west Africa — Damaraland 

 (Andersson). 



Habits. — This species, though less widely distributed and not so 

 common as the Namaqua Sandgrouse, resembles it in its habits. 



