THE CLOSE-BARRED SAND-GROUSE. 67 



spread tails. In captivity these birds are intractable, violent 

 and quarrelsome ; they swell out their crops and strut round and 

 round like cock pigeons, croaking at and hustling each other, 

 and with backs upraised striking with their wings. 



" Nowhere have we met with the Close-barred Sand-Grouse 

 in such enormous multitudes as at the wells of Tadschura, and 

 at the torrents of the neighbouring coast in the Eisa-Somali 

 region." 



Of the nidification of this species, nothing appears to be on re- 

 cord beyond the following very vague remarks of von Heuglin : — 

 " Occasionally we came across the nests of this species ; they 

 were found on the slopes of the highland in thin dry brushwood, 

 and contained two cylindrical-shaped eggs much the colour of 

 dirty and faded Peewits' eggs. The breeding season is the 

 beginning of the rains. The nest is only a little hollow in the 

 desert sand." 



I have only measured a single pair, of which the following 

 were the dimensions : — 



Male. — Length, 107 ; expanse, 21°; tail from vent, 3*2 ; wing, 

 6*65 ; wings, when closed, reach to within 07 of end of tail ; 

 bill at front, 0*54 ; bill from gape, 0*65 ; tarsus, 1*05. Weight, 

 8 ozs. 



Female. — Length, 10*37 \ expanse, 20 ; tail from vent, 3 ; wing, 

 66 ; wings, when closed, reach to within 07 of end of tail ; 

 bill at front, 0*55 ; from gape, 0'62. Weight, 8 ozs. 



Legs wholly feathered in front ; feet orange yellow ; reticula- 

 tions white ; claws dusky, tipped yellowish ; bill fleshy brown, 

 darker in the female ; irides brown ; orbital skin yellow. 



The Plate, though very defective, will yet, I believe, suffice 

 to enable sportsmen to identify any specimens they obtain. 



The female seems to be a mere preliminary sketch, which 

 might, had the artist chosen to take the trouble, have been 

 finished into a correct picture. 



It may be well to explain that, although this species 

 closely resembles P. fasciatus, the males are distinguishable at a 

 glance by the entire absence of the barring all round the lower 

 throat and neck in fasciatus^ by the much bolder character of 

 the barrings on the back of fasciatus, and by the abdomen in 

 fasciatus being black with crescentic white marks, instead of 

 white with crescentic black ones as in the present species ; the 

 difference in the abdomen holds good in the females, and 

 besides the whole chin and throat is spotless isabelline in the 

 fasciatus female, while it is albescent, throughout closely speck- 

 led, with blackish brown in the female lichtensteini. The upper 

 surface of the female in both species belongs to the same type, 

 but that of fasciatus is more rufous and has bolder markings. 



