The STRIPED SAND GROUSE (_Pterocles Lichtensteinii_) has the mantle and
under side of a light greyish yellow, delicately striped with black; the
brow and fore part of the head are whitish, and divided in the centre by
a black line, that passes from the base of the bill to the top of the
head, which, like the region of the cheek and the throat, is marked with
dark spots instead of stripes. The mantle is enlivened by numerous bright
yellow, crescent-shaped spots, and the upper breast decorated with a broad
band of light brownish yellow, through which pass two lines, the one dark
brown and the other light grey; the primaries are deep brown on the outer,
and light brown on the inner, web; the secondaries brown at the root, with
pure white outer web and black tip; the rounded tail--the centre feathers
of which do not exceed the rest in length--is reddish yellow, each feather
being delicately striped with black. The eye is dark brown, and the skin
around it sulphur-yellow. The beak is dull orange; and the fore parts of
the foot are copper-colour. This species is ten inches and two-thirds
long, and twenty-one inches and a half broad; the wing measures seven and
the tail two inches and a half. The female is without the dark line on the
brow, and the reddish brown band upon her breast; her plumage is greyish
yellow, striped very uniformly with delicate black lines. The Striped Sand
Grouse, which closely resembles its congeners in its habits, is, according
to Jerdon, common in Arabia, and occurs as a straggler in Scinde and the
Punjaub.