224 otidid;e. 



feathers white at the base, and black for the remainder of 

 their length ; nape and base of the neck, whitish ; on the 

 sides of the neck, a series of plumes gradually increasing in 

 length, the upper two-thirds of which are black ; of the re- 

 mainder some are white, others black, and some both black 

 and white ; upper surface sandy-buft", minutely pencilled 

 with black, the pencillings increasing in breadth and inten- 

 sity here and there so as to form irregular bars across the 

 feathers, these darker markings becoming larger and more 

 conspicuous as they proceed posteriorly ; rump without these 

 darker pencillings ; upper tail-coverts and tail similarly 

 marked and crossed by bands of grey, which increase in size 

 towards the tip ; the tail is, moreover, washed with rufous, 

 and terminated with buffy-white ; wing-coverts buffy- white, 

 pencilled with black ; first five primaries white at the base, 

 and black for the remainder of their length ; the other 

 primaries and the secondaries black, with a transverse mark 

 of white at the tip ; throat white ; neck and breast light 

 grey ; under surface of the wing and abdomen white ; lower 

 part of the flanks and under tail-coverts white, pencilled and 

 barred with blackish-brown ; irides yellow ; bill blackish- 

 horny, except at the base, which is yellowish ; legs greenish- 

 yellow. 



The female is a little lighter in colour, and has the 

 crest and ruff less developed than the male. The basal 

 portion of most of the body feathers is suffused with a 

 vinaceous tint, similar to that already noticed in the Great 

 and the Little Bustards. Total length of either sex about 

 twenty- six inches ; from the carpal joint to the end of the 

 wing fifteen and a half inches. 



The figure here given represents the male bird in his 

 breeding plumage, and is taken, by permission, from Mr. 

 Gould's ' Birds of Asia.' 



In the African 0. undulata, the ground-colour of the 

 upper parts is more rufous, the vermiculations are much 

 coarser, the tail is broadly crossed with five bars of bluish- 

 grey, and the elongated feathers of the crest, and on the 

 lower throat, are white. 



