PTEROCLES FASCIAT US.
Banded Sand Grouse.

La Gélinote des Indes, Sonnerat, Voy. aux Indes, &c., tom. ii. p. 164. pl. 96

Tringa fasciata, Scop. Del Flor. et Faun. Insub., Part II. Daze

en cae Lath. oon Syn., vol. iv. pe 752. Ib. Gen. Hist., vol. viii. p- 260.

Tetrao Indicus, Gmel. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 755.—Vieill. et Bonn. Eney. Méth. Orn., Part I. Pa ZO ple atromy

Perdix Indica, Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. ii. p. 650. : ete

Qinas Indicus, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. Nat.

—— bicincta, Vieill. Gal. des Ois., tom. ii. pl. 220.

Pterocles quadricinctus, Sykes in Proc. of Comm. of Sci. of Zool. Soc., Part II. p- 155.—Ib. Journ. Asiat. Soc
Beng., vol. i. p. 639.—Steph. Cont. of Shaw’s Gen. Zool., vol. xi. p. 304.—Je
of Lit. and Sei., vol. xii. p. 4.—Ib. Ill. Ind. Orn., pls. 10 and 36.

——— fasciatus, Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. iii. p. 518.—Blyth, Cat. of Birds in Mus. Asiat. Soc. Cal-
cutta, p. 249.

rd. in Madras Journ.

Hundeyree, Windoo. Polunkar, Telugu. Kelkudari, (Rock Partridge) Tamul. Painted Whistling Grouse or Rock
Pigeon of Europeans.

 

Or all the known members of the genus Pterocles, this is by far the most richly coloured; so beautiful in
fact are its varied and conspicuous markings, that they have obtained for it the distinctive appellation of the
Painted Sand Grouse. It has usually been confounded with a nearly allied African species, the P. guadri-
cinctus of M. Temminck ; the two birds are, however, quite distinct, and are, I believe, strictly confined to
their respective countries ; the P. fasciatus to India, and the P. guadricinctus to Africa.

The Péerocles fasciatus appears to be very generally diffused over India, but to be not so numerous as the
P. exustus. Captain Boys’s collection contained many fine examples, procured at Suckteysghur in March
1840, and in his “‘ Notes” he remarks that ‘this species is a solitary one, and is only met with in pairs
among brushwood and jungle in the vicinity of water ; when flushed it makes no noise excepting that pro-
duced by the action of the wings during flight, which is swift and dogging; the late Hon. F. J. Shore killed
both sexes at one shot, at Jubulpore, June 30, 1835.”

>

‘‘This handsomely plumaged Rock Grouse,” says Mr. Jerdon, “is to be found in suitable localities
throughout India, but is by no means a common or abundant species. Unlike the Pterocles evustus, which
delights in bare and rocky plains, this bird is only to be seen in bushy and jungly ground, and prefers the
neighbourhood of low hills. It is always met with in pairs, and when flushed rises with a low chuckling
call, takes a very short flight, and alights. It sometimes, if followed, runs a short distance, and is raised
again with great difficulty. Its food consists of various hard seeds, and the natives invariably assert that
both this and the common Rock-grouse feed on gravel alone. It breeds during the hot weather, laying two
or three eggs of an olive colour, speckled with spots of olive-brown and dusky, and of a long cylindrical
shape, equally rounded at both ends. _ Its flesh is delicate and well-flavoured. Though it does not occur in
sufficient numbers to induce the sportsman to follow it alone, yet in beating the low jungles for other game,
a pair or two are occasionally flushed and shot.” Colonel Sykes states that it is “rare, and met with only
in pairs on open ground at the foot of hills.”

Its ery is similar to that of the 2. exustus, but is much less loud and deeper, and never heard except when
the bird is first flushed.

The male has the front part of the he
black; hinder part of the head striated with blac

coverts, tawny yellow with a slight wash of gree

ad white, crossed immediately before the eyes with a broad band of

k and buff; chin, neck before and behind, and the wing-

n: across the breast three bands, the first of which is
. a

narrow and of a deep reddish chestnut, the second broad and of a pale yellowish buff, the third narrow and

of a dark chocolate hue; upper surface, tail and under tail-coverts alternately banded with dark brown and

buff, the bands arranged in a semicircular form at the upper part of the bac the ce ee
ossed by a band of very dark brown, next a wnat one, an then anot ver 0
ast dark-coloured band being sometimes edged with a
k chocolate crossed by irregular bands of brown
deep brown ; legs and feet ochreous yellow.

iduals, some being of a pale yellowish buff,

rufous yellow at the tip, then cr
greyish brown on a pale dusky yellow ground, the |
narrow one of white; quills dark brown; under surface cam
and yellowish white ; bill red ; orbits pale lemon-yellow 5 imides
A diversity of the general hue is found to exist in different indiv
and others of a dark sandy red.

The female has the chin and cheeks yellowish buff; head str

‘th narrow irregular bands
all the upper and under surface banded with narrow Ir! egular be
buff; primaries and secondaries brown, 0

‘ated with blackish brown and reddish buff;
of brown on a sandy buff ground; tips

f th i 1 arrowly edged on the inner webs with
of the wing-coverts sandy
5
iti i ‘ r hue.
whitish ; under surface as in the male, but of a paler |

se “the size of life.
The Plate represents a male and a female of the size of