222 PIN-TAILED SAM) GROUSE. 



Specific Characters. — Tail 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 inches, the latter 

 extending three inches beyond the shorter feathers of the tail. 

 Prom carpus to the end of the long pointed wing eight inches 

 and a half; beak eight lines; tarsi one inch and one fifth; 

 middle toe and claw one inch. 



Tins* most elegant and beautiful of birds claims 

 Spain and the Pyrenees as its principal European 

 locality, for which reason it was named by Brisson La 

 Gelinote des Pyrenees. It is also found in Sicily and 

 the Levant, the plains of Cran in Provence, and 

 accidentally in the northern parts of France. Its real 

 home however is in the sandy plains of Africa and 

 Asia, where it ranges from the three provinces of 

 Algeria, through the Great Sahara, to Egypt, Syria, 

 Persia, and thence to the burning sands of India, 

 being common, as Dr. Leith Adams informs me, in 

 Afghanistan. 



In Eastern Africa we are informed by Mr. Salvin, 

 (Ibis, vol. i, p. 352,) that he only found this bird in the 

 extensive sandy plains, — the Harakta. In the north of 

 Africa, however, Mr. Tristram (Ibis, vol. ii, p. 70,) 

 says that it is far more abundant, and continues to 

 occur in vast flocks in winter, in the M'zab and 

 Touarick, where the next described species, P. arenarius, 

 is not found. 



The Pin-tail Sand Grouse occurs in sandy plains 

 and uncultivated grounds, avoiding as much as possible 

 the habitations of men. M. Crespon however tells us 

 that he succeeded in taming it in confinement, and he 

 had specimens in his aviary for several years, and 



