PTEROCLES GUTTURALIS. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Inches. Lines. Inches. Lines. 
Length from the tip of bill to the end Length of the tarsus 1 1 
of the tail 12 6 middle toe 1 0 
of the tail 0 10 outer toe 0 9 
of the wings when folded 8 9 hinder toe 0 1^ 
of the tail 4 3 
In the female, the top of the head is brownish black, spotted with rusty 
white ; back of the neck, dull cream yellow, freely dashed with brown ; the 
sides of the neck and the throat pale honey yellow ; the back, the shoulders, 
and the breast, brownish black, with large cream-coloured spots ; belly, deep 
black, barred with pale chesnut. Under tail-coverts bright chesnut, towards 
their bases barred with black. Tail, blackish brown, with partial bars of 
light cream-yellow, and all except the two middle feathers, tipt with pale 
reddish orange. Length 11| inches. 
This bird was first discovered in latitude 25° 40', about eighty miles to the eastward of Latakoo, 
and it was when we remarked its cry to differ from that uttered by Pterocles Tachyptes, Temm. that 
we were led to a suspicion of its being a distinct species. In common with the other South African 
species of this genus, it repairs in large flocks at regular and fixed periods, to localities where water 
exists, and it is at such times that specimens are most readily to be secured. The sportsman, 
however, to be successful, must be quick in his movements, as they scarcely reach the water 
before they are again on the wing. Both in approaching to, and receding from such spots, 
they utter almost incessantly sharp cries, somewhat resembling tioet weet, twet meet. From 
observing these birds when in quest of means for quenching their thirst, one would be disposed 
to consider them gregarious ; but such notions are soon suspended when theii feeding grounds 
are discovered. Over the latter they are generally dispersed singly or in pairs, and the occa- 
sional congregation only takes place by solitary individuals successively joining others who are 
on the way from a greater distance. This species seeks the water about ten in the morning 
and three in the afternoon, and in that respect resembles the Pterocles Tachyptes, which 
inhabits a different part of the country. The Pterocles Variegatus, which we shall hereafter 
figure, prefers to drink during the early part of the morning, and the Pterocles Bicinctus 
again, during the dusk of the evening, and the early part of the night. In such an arrange- 
ment we must admit design ; as, were all of the various species to experience thirst at or about 
the same time, both delay and difficulty would be experienced in quenching it, since owing to 
the general scarcity of water in the districts they inhabit, even as it is at present, hundreds of 
the same species are often to be seen fringing the brink of a pool for hours together, and occa- 
sionally disputing for the first sip. Grass-seeds, ants, and abundance of gravel were found in 
the stomachs of most of the individuals we secured. 
