12 LIEUT.-COLONEL SYKES ON THE 
to blackness under the chin: across the throat are two chocolate or black narrow bands 
(frequently interrupted in the middle) in a semicircular form, one originating near the 
gape, the other at the ears. Breast reddish, with one or two black specks on most 
of the feathers. Belly and vent reddish white. The long feathers of the flanks, under 
the wings, red chocolate, with a broad yellow stripe down the shaft, and some small 
blotches of black and yellow on the webs. Back, scapulars, back-neck, and rump, black 
or deep chocolate-brown, with a longitudinal dagger-shaped yellow stripe down the 
shaft of the chief feathers, and barred transversely with two or three very narrow yel- 
lowish bands. Wings brown or gray brown, with short narrow bars or dots of tawny on 
the outer web. Wing-coverts the same, with the addition of a thread-like yellow line 
down the shaft. Tail very short, and covered by the rump-feathers. 
The female is Jarger than the male, and has the bars on the throat frequently obscure 
or wanting, and the specks on the breast are at times less numerous. 
Nonage, and the different seasons of the year, produce slight variations in the plu- 
mage, but not to an extent to render doubtful for a moment the species of an indi- 
vidual. The black specks on the breast, I think, are more characteristic in general of 
the male than the female; but I have notes of several males shot in the valley of 
Sasswur, Poona Collectorate, totally destitute of specks, and some females had them. 
The usual length of the female of this species, from the tip of the bill to the end of the 
tail, is 7+ inches; but I have a female in my possession measuring 8 inches, inclusive 
of the tail of 2 inches, and in which bird the length from the tip of the bill to the end 
of the middle toe is 10+ inches. 
In five birds examined, the intestinal canal varied in length from 13 to 18 inches, the 
proportional length to the body ranging between 2:0 and 2:77 to 1. Duodenum wide. 
Colon from 14 to 2 inches. Ceca long and large, club-shaped, with a boss at the end, 
varying in length in different individuals only from 2-3, to 243; inches, full of green pulp. 
Liver of two fleshy lobes without fissures. Gall-bladder subreniform, full of deep 
black-green bile. Gizzard oval, compressed, the digastric muscles ;3; inch thick. Spleen 
nearly globular, its greatest diameter being -*, inch. 
Contents of the stomach, grass seeds, insects, much vegetable fibre, apparently the 
hairy calyces of Dolichos biflorus and the seeds of Phaseolus Aconitifolius. 'The species, 
indeed, appears omnivorous. 
They are fond of tufts of grass round ponds, lakes, and in the neighbourhood of 
water-courses in cultivated lands, and irrigated young wheats. During the monsoon 
they are in pairs; and in October I have met with young broods unable to fly; the 
period of incubation, therefore, is during the rains (from June to October inclusive). 
I never found them congregated in numbers as if preparatory to emigration, and feel 
fully satisfied that the Bird does not at any season quit any part of India I have been in. 
