PTEROCLES FASCIATUS. 



Banded Sand Grouse. 



La Gelinote des Indes, Sonnerat, Voy. aux Indes, &c, torn. ii. p. 164. pi. 96. 



Tringa fasciata, Scop. Del Flor. et Faun. Insub., Part II. p. 92. 



Indian Grow, Lath. Gen. Syn., vol. iv. p. 752. lb. Gen. Hist., vol. viii. p. 260. 



Tetrao Indicw, Gmel. Syst. Nat, torn. i. p. 755.-*Vieill. et Bonn. Ency. Meth. Orn, Part I. p. 201. pi. 92. fig. 1. 



Perdix Indica, Lath. Ind. Orn, vol. ii. p. 650. 



(Enas Indicw, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. 



bicincta, Vieill. Gal. des Ois, torn. ii. pi. 220. 



Pterocles quadricinctw, Sykes in Proc. of Comm. of Sci. of Zool. Soc, Part II. p. 155.— lb. Journ. Asiat. Soc. 

 Beng, vol. hi. p. 639.-Steph. Cont. of Shaw's Gen. Zool, vol. xi. p. 304.-Jerd. in Madras Journ! 

 of Lit. and Sci, vol. xii. p. 4.— lb. 111. Ind. Orn, pis. 10 and 36. 



fasciatw, Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. iii. p. 518.-Blyth, Cat. of Birds in Mus. Asiat. Soc. Cal- 

 cutta, p. 249. 



Hundeyree, Hindoo. Polunkar, Telugu. Kelkudari, (Rock Partridge) Tamul. Painted Whistling Growe or Rock 

 Pigeon of Europeans. 



in 



Of all the known members of the genus Pterocles, this is by far the most richly coloured ; so beautiful i 

 fact are its varied and conspicuous markings, that they have obtained for it the distinctive appellation of the 

 Painted Sand Grouse. It has usually been confounded with a nearly allied African species, the P. quadri- 

 cinctw of M. Temminck ; the two birds are, however, quite distinct, and are, I believe, strictly confined to 

 their respective countries ; the P. fasciatw to India, and the P. quadricinctw to Africa. 



The Pterocles fasciatw appears to be very generally diffused over India, but to be not so numerous as the 

 P. ewustw. Captain Boys's collection contained many fine examples, procured at Suckteysghur in March 

 1840, and in his "Notes" he remarks that "this species is a solitary one, and is only met with in pairs 

 among brushwood and jungle in the vicinity of water ; when flushed it makes no noise excepting that pro- 

 duced by the action of the wings during flight, which is swift and dogging ; the late Hon. F. J. Shore killed 

 both sexes at one shot, at Jubulpore, June 30, 1835." 



"This handsomely plumaged Rock Grouse," says Mr. Jerdon, "is to be found in suitable localities 

 throughout India, but is by no means a common or abundant species. Unlike the Pterocles eajustus, which 

 delights in bare and rocky plains, this bird is only to be seen in bushy and jungly ground, and prefers the 

 neighbourhood of low hills. It is always met with in pairs, and when flushed rises with a low chuckling 

 call, takes a very short flight, and alights. It sometimes, if followed, runs a short distance, and is raised 

 again with great difficulty. Its food consists of various hard seeds, and the natives invariably assert that 

 both this and the common Rock-grouse feed on gravel alone. It breeds during the hot weather, laying two 

 or three eggs of an olive colour, speckled with spots of olive-brown and dusky, and of a long cylindrical 

 shape, equally rounded at both ends. Its flesh is delicate and well-flavoured. Though it does not occur in 

 sufficient numbers to induce the sportsman to follow it alone, yet in beating the low jungles for other game, 

 a pair or two are occasionally flushed and shot." Colonel Sykes states that it is " rare, and met with only 

 in pairs on open ground at the foot of hills." 



Its cry is similar to that of the P. exustus, but is much less loud and deeper, and never heard except when 

 the bird is first flushed. 



The male has the front part of the head white, crossed immediately before the eyes with a broad band of 

 black ; hinder part of the head striated with black and buff; chin, neck before and behind, and the wing- 

 coverts, tawny yellow with a slight wash of green ; across the breast three bands, the first of which is 

 narrow and of a deep reddish chestnut, the second broad and of a pale yellowish buff, the third narrow and 

 of a dark chocolate hue ; upper surface, tail and under tail-coverts alternately banded with dark brown and 

 buff, the bands arranged in a semicircular form at the upper part of the back ; the greater wing-coverts 

 rufous yellow at the tip, then crossed by a band of very dark brown, next a white one, and then another of 

 greyish brown on a pale dusky yellow ground, the last dark-coloured band being sometimes edged with a 

 narrow one of white ; quills dark brown ; under surface dark chocolate crossed by irregular bands of brown 

 and yellowish white ; bill red ; orbits pale lemon-yellow ; irides deep brown ; legs and feet ochreous yellow. 

 A diversity of the general hue is found to exist in different individuals, some being of a pale yellowish buff, 

 and others of a dark sandy red. 



The female has the chin and cheeks yellowish buff; head striated with blackish brown and reddish buff; 

 all the upper and under surface banded with narrow irregular bands of brown on a sandy buff ground; tips 

 of the wing-coverts sandy buff; primaries and secondaries brown, narrowly edged on the inner webs with 

 whitish ; under surface as in the male, but of a paler hue. 



The Plate represents a male and a female of the size of life. 



