Pterocles alchata, Linne. 



Vernacular Names.— [None? 



COLD weather visitant only to our Empire, the Pin- 

 tailed Sand-Grouse does little more than just cross 

 our western frontier. 



It is only Trans-Indus, in Northern and Central 

 Sind and the Punjab, that it is at all an abundant 

 or regular visitant, but it occurs as an isolated strag- 

 gler, from time to time, a good deal further east, and 

 I have received specimens from near Kurrachee, from the Pun- 

 jab from as far east as near Delhi, and from Rajputana 

 from as far east as the Sambhar Junction. 



Outside our present limits, the Pintailed Sand-Grouse occurs 

 in Eastern Afghanistan and Khelat ; whether it does so in the 

 western portions of these provinces is still uncertain. It has not 

 been observed in Southern Beluchistan, nor on the Persian plateau, 

 and, despite what Mr. Dresser says, Mr. Blanford never saw it in any 

 part of Persia that he visited. Only at Bushire, Major St John 

 noticed that it appeared in enormous flocks for a few days in 

 March, migrating, but whither he could not discover. Of course 

 it occurs in North-Western Persia, Tabriz way, but that is in a 

 distinct zoological province, to which I shall return. North of 

 the Persian plateau (though it does not apparently extend 

 into Eastern Turkistan, late the territory of the Ataligh Ghazi), 

 it occurs pretty well throughout Western Turkestan to the Cas- 

 pian. Westwards, it is common along the Caucasus, and south- 

 wards into North- Western Persia and Armenia ; is found in count- 

 less myriads during the cold season in Mesopotamia (Turkish 

 Arabia), and has been recorded from various places in Asia 

 Minor (in parts of which, as near Smyrna, it is known to breed), 

 and Palestine. North of the Caucasus, it straggles into Southern 

 Russia. 



That it occurs in Arabia Proper there can be little doubt, 

 but of the fact I find no record. Westwards, again, it does not 

 appear to occur in Egypt, Nubia, or Abyssinia, but westwards 

 of Egypt it occurs (though irregularly distributed) in suitable 

 localities along the whole of North and North-Western Africa, 

 and there are vague indications of specimens having been 

 actually obtained at the Canaries. 



