ns cmunirm mii a iiii ; 



Pterocles coronatus, Xichtenstem. 



Vernacular Names-— [Katinga, sind.\ 



T is only on the extreme western confines of the 

 Empire, in the desert portions of Sind Trans-Indus, 

 that the Coronetted Sand-Grouse occurs within our 

 limits, and there only as a cold weather visitant, and 

 in small numbers. A single specimen has been killed 

 in the southern portion of the Dera Ghazi Khan 

 District, but I know of no other instance of its 

 occurrence outside the limits above indicated. 



In the Cutchee of Khelat, and in Beluchistan, it is not very 

 rare, and Blanford obtained it on the Persian plateau. It has 

 also been recorded from Arabia, Egypt, Nubia, Kordofan, and 

 the southern portions of the Sahara, but its real area of dis- 

 tribution is as yet very imperfectly defined. 



I HAVE never myself seen this species alive, nor can I find any 

 single thing recorded of its habits, food, or the like. Heuglin 

 only tells us that in its voice and habits it precisely resembles 

 the Spotted Sand-Grouse. 



Tristram obtained the eggs in the more southern portions 

 of the Sahara, where, he says, it supplants P. arenarius. He 

 adds : " I found it only in small companies of four or five, but this 

 may have been owing to the extreme scarcity of plants in the 

 district where it roams. The egg is of an ashy white, with a 

 few, almost obliterated, pale-brown markings." 



My few specimens measure in the skin: — 



Length ; Wing ; Bill at front ; Tail ; Tarsus. 



Males. io"s to n"7 ; 7*1 to 7^23; 0*58 to o"68 ; 3*3 to 3*75 o'g to C95. 



Females. 10 to 1C7 ; 7 to 7'i5 ; 0*56 to o'66 ; 3*4 to 3*5 ; o 9 to C93. 



The Plate is rather a pretty picture ; an artistic ideali- 

 zation and not a portrait, and therefore worthless for our 

 purposes, though the black markings about the head will pro- 

 bably suffice for the identification of the male. In the male the 

 strongly-marked blue grey supercilium is scarcely indicated, 

 while as to the female, a dark-looking bird, densely banded with 

 black, or in some places brownish black, I can only suppose 

 that the artist began, but wholly forgot to finish, his picture. 



