THE (iAME BIRDS OF INDIA. 183 



K" 



Measurements. — Length about 24", varying according,, principal 

 ly, to the length of the tail ; wing from 8-3" (210-8 mm.) to 9-5 

 (241-3 mm.) and Hume gives the measurements of the wing of one 

 his males as 10-0" (254-0 mm.) ; the average of fifty birds is almost 

 exactly 9-0" (228-6 mm.) ; tarsus about 3-2" (81-2 mm.) ; spin- 

 runs up to 1" (25-4 ir.m.) ; but is usually rather undei- this ; bill 

 at front about 1-20" (30-5 mm.), and from gape about 1-40" 

 (35-5 mm.). The crest is generally about 3" (76-2 mm.) in a 

 male in good plumage, but I have shot birds with crests of over 

 3-5" (88-9 mm.). 



The weight varies extraordinarily^ birds of 4 or 5 years of age 

 greatly exceeding the younger ones. Cocks about a year old will 

 weigh anything between 2:j:-rbs. and 2|-lbs. but old birds often 

 exceed 3-lbs. one such shot in November which had been feeding 

 in the just ripened rice fields weighed no less than 3^-lbs. 



Adult Female. — Above reddish brown, finely powdered with 

 dark brown, the feathers, except of the head, edged with paler and 

 also with pale shafts ; two central pairs of feathers chestnut-brown, 

 more or less vermiculated with dark brown, other tail feathers 

 blackish brown, those next the central pair more or less marked 

 with dull chestnut-brown, but still alwaj-s shewing in fair contrast 

 to them ; upper tail-coverts and rump a little paler than the back. 

 Chin and throat white, grading into brown on the foreneck ; re- 

 mainder of the plumage below brown, generally slightlj" darker 

 than above, the shafts white and shewing up clearly against the 

 brown webs and the edges of each feather paler than the rest ; 

 centre of abdomen paler and dingier brown ; under tail-coverts 

 blackish brown narrowly adged paler. Wing-coverts like the back, 

 but generally more broadly edged with a paler tint ; quills reddish 

 brown, the innermost secondaries fiuel}^ vermiculated with dark 

 brown, and sometimes tipped and edged paler. 



The variations in colour found in the females consist principalty 

 in the depth of colouring on both upper and lower plumage, and in 

 the extent and colour of the pale edges to the feathers. A few 

 birds have the* upper plumage a quite dark red-brown, and the 

 under parts are almost blackish-brown with the pale edges and light 

 shafts very conspicuous. Both above and below the amount of pale 

 edging varies very greatly ; in some this edging is merely an ashy 

 tint slightly paler than the rest of the feather, in others it becomes 

 a bold sharply-defined border of almost piire white, so broad on the 

 wing-coverts as to form two well-marked bars. There appears to 

 be no geographical distribution governing the variations here 

 referred to, and extremes of all may be met with in one and the 

 same district. 



The females of this and the previous species are not easy to 

 distinguish, but on the whole horsjieldi is darker than alhocristatus 



