202 GAME-BIKDS OF INDIA 



Back, scapulars, rump and upper tail-coverts buff, each feather 

 with a broad central spear-head of black, surrounded with buff. 

 These marks disappear ou the rump, which is more indefinitely 

 marked. Tail like the back, but without the spear-head marks, and 

 with four broad bands of black. Quills of the wing as in the male. 

 Wing-coverts buff, the outer sparsely barred with brown or black, the 

 inner and smaller profusely barred, and to some extent freckled with 

 black. 



Colours of Soft Parts. — Inglis sends me a note on the soft parts of 

 a female shot by him in Behar as follows : " Bill dusky-red, culmen 

 dark-brown, gape and base of lower mandible yellow; iris yellow 

 tinged with red ; legs dull dusky yellow." 



Measurements.— Wing 8-2.5 to Q'To inches (=209-5 to 247-6 mm.), 

 tarsus 3-55 to 3-85 (=:90-2 to 98-8 mm.), bill at front 1-45 to I'GS 

 (=36-8 to 41-9 mm.), tail about 4-5 (= 1143 mm.). 



Female. — "Length 18 to 2r4 inches, expanse 29 to 36, wing 90 

 to 9-75, tail 4-7 to 5-0, tarsus 3^9 to 4-4, bill from gape 2-28 to 

 2-3. Weight 1 lb. 2 ozs. to 1 lb. 10 ozs." (Hnmc). 



There are several females in the British Museum collection with 

 wings under nine inches, but these are probably young birds. Fully 

 adult birds, i.e., over eighteen months, will not often be found with 

 a wing of less than nine inches. 



Adult Male in winter plumage. — Similar to the female, but retaining 

 a considerable amount of white on the wing. 



Young Male. — Like the female. 



Nestling. — " An almost uniform dirty pale-yellow colour, with 

 an unclosed V on the crown of the head in dingy black, and blotches, 

 rather stripey, of black on the wing, back and sides, and about the 

 ears; legs and beak a colour between pale-blue and pale-pink; and 

 on the tip of the beak a little lump of pale pearly-white," {Davidson 

 as quoted by Hume). 



Distribution. — In ' Game-Birds " Hume thus describes the habitat 

 of the Lesser Florican : — 



I find great difticulty in defining the limits within wliich the 

 Lesser Florican occurs ; firstly, because it is irregularly migratory, 

 and secondly because individual birds straggle in the most un- 

 accountable manner hundreds of miles beyond the furthest districts 

 \vhich it at all reguLuly visits. 



