SYPHEOTIS BENGALENSIS 217 



always the same in number ; remaining quills white, except the outer 

 webs and part of the inner webs of the first and second primary, 

 which are black ; in some birds the outer web of the third primary is 

 also nearly all black, and this black diminishes in extent on each 

 succeeding quill, remaining only as a black tip to the outer webs of 

 the innermost primaries and disappearing altogether on the outer 

 secondaries. The shafts of all the wing-quills are black. 



Colours of Soft Parts. — Bill, upper mandible dark-brown, some- 

 times with a leaden tinge, lower mandible paler and more leaden, and 

 often with a yellow tinge on the basal two-thirds. Iris brown, Hume 

 says sometimes yellow. Legs straw-yellow, sometimes with a tinge 

 of green or plumbeous. 



Measurements. — Wing 13"2 to 13-75 inches (= 338 to 347 mm.), 

 bill, from feathers above nostril on culmen, 1'2 to 1'25 (= 30'5 to 

 31'7 mm.), from gape 2'12 to 2'44 (= 53'8 to 61-4 mm.), tarsus 

 about 5 (= 127 mm.) or a little over; tail 6'5 to 725 (= 165 to 

 184 mm.). 



Tarsus 50 inches. {Blanford.) 



Tarsus 6'12 to G'75 inches. {Hume.) 



The feathers of the crest are long and somewhat lanceolate and 

 measure from three to four inches or even more. The feathers of 

 the hind-neck average about two inches, and below the neck they 

 increase gradually in length from the tiny feathers of the chin 

 to feathers on the fore-neck of over three inches and to the final tuft 

 of feathers on the breast, which may be as long as six inches in 

 old, fully-plumaged birds. 



In some birds which are more than usually richly coloured there 

 is often a rufescent shade in the buff-colour on the upper parts. 



Adult Female and Male in First Plumage. — Crown dark-brown, 

 sometimes almost black, with a certain amount of buff speckling and 

 buff edges to the posterior feathers ; a broad coronal streak of mottled 

 brown and buff ; supercilia and lores buff, generally immaculate but 

 the former sometimes with a few dark specks, feathers of short crest 

 buff speckled with black or brown and with dark centres and shafts. 

 Chin, upper throat and centre of lower throat buff or sand-colour, 

 unspotted, remainder of neck sandy-buff freckled and narrowly barred 

 •with black or brown, the bars not being definite enough to make 



