Leg feathered ; toes bare.
Middle tail-feathers not elongated.
Belly uniform deep black.
MALE : Foreneck and breast unspotted.
FEMALE : Foreneck and upper breast spotted.

VERNACULAR NAMES -Bukht-titar, Bur- titar, Bakht-tit, Bukht, Hind. ; Ban- chur, Kurmor, at Peshawar ; Kashmiri, Burr a Bhatta, Hariana and Bhattiana ; Katinga, Sind.

THE Black-bellied Sand-Grouse is found in India during the winter months only.  It arrives generally in October, but occa- sionally in the latter part of September, and leaves again in March ; but the length of its stay in any one district is dependent a good deal on temperature and other causes.
This bird is found throughout the north-western part of India from the Punjab and Sind to Oudh and Bundel- khand, the northern portion of the Central India Agency, Khandesh and Guzerat.  It is most abundant in the Punjab and Rajputana. Mr. Hodgson sent it from some part of Nepal, and Colonel Biddulph met with it near Gilgit in December.

It occurs in Turkestan, S. W. Asia, Southern Europe and Northern Africa.
These Sand-Grouse occur in large flocks and in some parts of the country in countless multitudes. Mr. Hume thus describes their habits : “ Ploughed land is a very favourite resort in the early mornings, and there they squat basking in the sun’s earliest rays, huddled up so close together and, where the party is large, in such dense masses, that large numbers may be bagged with a couple of charges of large shot, if one is only lucky enough to approach within 50 yards. . . . Wide, open, sandy plains are their favourite resorts ; and, though they do sometimes feed on bare ploughed lands, it is rare to find them on these except when basking in the early morning or when taking their midday siesta. This, like all the Sand-Grouse, they always take when the sun is hot, though on cold, cloudy, gloomy days, they are moving the whole day. They bustle about in the sand or loose loam like old hens until they have worked out a depression that fits them, and then in this they sit a little on one side, first with one wing a little under them and the uppermost one a little opened, and then, after a time, they shift over to the other side, so as to give the other wing its turn of grilling. ... It is not uncommon, particularly in the early part of the cold season, to meet with party after party consisting of birds of one sex only ; but this separation of the sexes is by no means invariable even in November and December, and is much less frequently seen as the season advances. . . . Every one in India knows the peculiar clucking note of this and the Common Sand-Grouse, but I really do not know how to put it on paper. This Sand-Grouse has not yet been known to nest in India, but in the Hume Collection there is an egg which was found by the late Lieut. H. E. Barnes at Chaman, in Southern Afghanistan ; it is therefore not improbable that the eggs may hereafter be found within our limits.

The British Museum possesses a fine series of the eggs of this bird from Asia Minor, Algeria, and Spain. They are as usual elliptical and very glossy. The ground-colour varies from light stone- colour to buff. The underlying shell- marks consist of blotches of very pale purple, and the surface-marks are reddish brown in some cases, plain brown in others. These surface-marks vary in size from dots and small spots to blotches and smears of considerable size, and they are in all cases pretty evenly distributed over the egg. In size the eggs vary from 17 to 2 in length, and from 1*25 to 1*35 in breadth.

The male bird has the crown and the back and sides of the neck brownish grey.  The upper plumage is mingled dark grey and fulvous, the feathers being grey with broad fulvous tips, and there is a large patch of fulvous on the wing. The quills of the wing are dark slaty. The tail- feathers are fulvous barred with black and ashy and broadly tipped with white. The throat is chestnut, and this colour extends down the neck and is bounded by a black band. The foreneck and breast are fulvous grey, and a black band crosses the middle of the breast. The belly and the sides of the body are deep black, and the .thighs and the feathers under the tail are white.

The female has the crown, the sides of the head, the back and sides of the neck fulvous streaked with black ; the remain- ing upper plumage fulvous irregularly barred with black; but, as in the male, there is a large patch of unbarred fulvous on the wing. The quills of the wing are pale slaty, each with a whitish terminal margin. The tail resembles that of the male. The throat is pale yellow, which colour extends to the sides of the neck, these parts being marked with a few tiny black streaks. The yellow on the throat is bounded by a black band followed by a grey patch. The foreneck and the upper breast are fulvous spotted with black, succeeded by an interrupted black band, below which a portion of the breast is plain fulvous. The belly and the sides of the body are deep black, and the thighs and the feathers under the tail are white.

Length about 14 ; wing about 9 ; tail from 4 to 5 ; legs grey ; irides brown ; bill bluish. Weight up to 20 oz.