166 GAME-BIEDS OF INDIA 



Description. Adult Male. — Crown from bill to nape black with a 

 certain amount of white stippling near the forehead and with the 

 nape mixed black and white, remainder of head and neck white, pure 

 in very old birds but faintly barred with brown or brownish black, 

 more especially on the upper neck, in young birds. Back, rump and 

 upper tail-coverts, together with scapulars, inner secondaries and 

 lesser wing-coverts deep-buff, finely vermiculated with black ; the 

 median wing-coverts are dark greyish or brownish-black generally 

 tipped with white, greater coverts deep-grey, edged black and tipped 

 white ; primaries dark-brown becoming more grey on the innermost ; 

 outer secondaries dark-grey, these and the primaries all tipped with 

 white and the inner ones marked with a white band on the inner 

 web. Under wing-coverts white ; flanks dark grey ; tail like the back 

 but more grey and with a broad terminal band of blackish-brown, with 

 the outermost one or two pairs of rectrices tipped white. A broad 

 black band across the breast, often continuing right round to the hind- 

 neck, where it divides the white of the neck from the buff of the back. 

 Under tail-coverts and feathers round vent blackish-brown, marked 

 with white and with white tips ; thighs generally much marked with 

 black and sometimes entirely black; rest of under-parts white. 



Colours of Soft Parts. — " The legs and toes are generally yellowish- 

 creamy, a little dingy on the toes ; but I have noticed specimens in 

 which the legs had more of a light fleshy tinge and others in which the 

 pale yellow had a grey or plumbeous tinge ; the irides vary from pale 

 to bright yellow ; the bill is greyish-brown to greyish-white, dusky at 

 tip and near forehead, and often a little yellowish below." (Hume.) 



Measurements. — " Length 45 to 50 inches, expanse 86 to 96, wing 

 24-5 to 29, tarsus T5 to 8-37, bill to gape 4^0 to 4-75, weight 17 to 

 22 lbs." (Hume.) 



The middle toe averages about 2'95 inches in length. 



The crest-feathers are about 2 inches in length. 



Jerdon gives the weight as up to 28 lbs., but this weight is 

 unusual. The heaviest I have received any record of is one shot by 

 Major A. B. Burton of 26J lbs., and Colonel L. L. Fenton gives the 

 average weight of cocks as 21 lbs. 



Blanford in ' Avifauna of British India ' gives the weights of 

 hens as 10 lbs. and of cocks as 25 lbs. to 85 lbs. and says that birds of 



