m i i i i i - i a i i i i mm*
mi
Pterocles lichtensteini, Temminck.
Vernacular Names.—{None?]
\T is only in the Trans-Indus portions of Sind that
this pretty Sand-Grouse has as yet been observed
within our limits,
i Until I discovered it in 1872 at Gul Muhammad, Mehar,
in Upper Sind, it was not known to occur outside
North-East Africa, where in Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia,
and Somali land, it would appear to have its home.
Jerdon, it is true, says that it is common in Arabia, and so it
not improbably is, but I cannot discover that he had any
authority for the statement. It has not yet been observed in
either Beluchistan or Southern Persia, but it must almost certainly
occur in the former at any rate.
In 1876, Captain Wise procured and sent me several specimens,
some from the Erie Hills and others from the Kurrachee
District, where in some seasons it is not uncommon.
IN SIND they seem to be only winter visitants, almost, if not
wholly, absent in some years, and never seen in any great numbers.
With us they are generally met with in pairs or parties
of three or four, in the neighbourhood of some little patch of
cultivation, or where broken, rocky ground or scrub afford some
kind of cover. They lie well, and though they fly fast enough,
like all their congeners, when well under weigh, rise an easy
shot.
Blanford, in his Zoology of Abyssinia, tells us that " this
bird has precisely the same habits as the closcly-allicd
Pt. fasciatus of India. It is rarely, if ever, seen on open sandy
plains.
" It keeps to bush and thin tree jungle, and is usually found
solitary, in pairs, or, at the most, two or three pairs together.
I once came upon a considerable flock in January, and possibly
at that time these birds may collect in large numbers, but in
May, June, July, and August, it was rare to see more than four