THE PIN TAILED SAND-GROUSE, 79 



SEVERTSOFF tells us that they breed in the Tian Shan and 

 Karatall ranges, at elevations of from 1,000 to 4,000 feet. I 

 have seen eggs collected near Smyrna. Salvin, in his " Five 

 months Bird Nesting in the Atlas," says :• — " The extensive sandy 

 plains, termed the Harakta, of which El Tharf is one of the 

 largest, are the only localities in which we met with this Sand- 

 Grouse. It makes no nest, but scrapes a slight hollow in the 

 sand, in which it deposits its three eggs. These are laid in 

 May, the young being hatched about the second week in June. 

 The only species of Pterocles which occur in these elevated 

 districts are P. alchata and P. arenarius!' 



Canon Tristram, in his " Notes on the Ornithology of N. 

 Africa," remarks : — " Though this bird does not approach so near 

 the verge of cultivation northwards as arenarius^ it is far more 

 generally abundant, and continues to occur in vast flocks in 

 winter in the M'zah and Touarick country, where I never saw 

 P. arenarius. 



" Its breeding habits are exactly like those of P. arenarius ; 

 but its egg is of a much richer fawn-coloured tint, covered, and 

 sometimes zoned, with large maroon red blotches, while that 

 of the other is of a paler hue, with obsolete pale brown 

 blotches." 



The eggs are, of course, of the usual type, elongated some- 

 what cylindrical ovals, with stout glossy shells. Dresser de- 

 scribes eggs that he had received from Algeria and Spain as 

 '* warm clay coloured or stone ochre, with a faint reddish cream 

 tinge, marked with faint purplish grey underlying shell-markings 

 and dark reddish brown surface spots and blotches scattered 

 tolerably closely over the surface of the egg, ,} and measur- 

 ing from 17 to 1*97 in length, and from 1*22 to 1*25 in breadth, 



The MALES in this species are somewhat larger, and average 

 decidedly heavier than the females. 



Males. — Length, 14 to 15*5 ; expanse, 24 to 26 ; wing, 7*96 

 to 8*5 ; tail from vent, 5 to 7 ; tarsus, ro to i*i 3. Weight 

 10 to 12 ozs. 



Females. — Length, 13*5 to 15 ; expanse, 24 to 25 ; wings, 

 7*5 to 8*15; tail from vent, 375 to 6; tarsus, 0*97 to ri2. 

 Weight, 8*25 to 11*25 ozs. 



The feet are dirty or dusky green, in one specimen yellow- 

 ish ; the irides are brown ; the bill varies in colour some- 

 what, and I have recorded it in different specimens, as " dusky 

 green," " greenish brown," " brown," " dark brown," " slate 

 colour." 



The Plate would really be perfect for a chromo, had the 

 feet not been wrongly coloured. I have never seen a specimen 



