578 CURSORID/T-:. 



Length. 24 to 27 inches; wing 14; tail 7; tarsus 6; bill at front 1-25. 

 The female has the whole upper plumage pale fulvous with black and brown 

 mottlings, barrings and vermiculations ; ear coverts whitish. 



Hab. Throughout Lower Bengal, parts of the Punjab, N.-W. Provinces, 

 Ouclh, Dacca, Hill Tipperah, Sylhet, Assam and northward to the foot 

 of the Himalayas. Breeds in Sikkim and Nepaul, from May to July. Eggs 

 two in number, variable in shades of colour pink, brown and stone colour, 

 blotched and freckled all over with dark brown. 



1249- SypheotideS auritUS (Lath.}, Jard. and Selby, III. Orn. 

 pis. 49, 92 ; P. C, 533 ; Jerd., B. hid. iii. p. 619, No. 839; Hume, Nests and 

 Eggs Ind. B. p. 561 ; id. and Marsh., Game Birds i. p. 5, pi.; Murray, 

 Hdbk.y Zool., $., Sind, p. 207 ; Str. F. vol. iv. p. IO; id., Vert. Zool. Sind, 

 p. 221. (Likh, Sind.) THE LESSER FLORIKIN. 



Male. Head, neck, breast, ear tufts and entire lower parts black, paler on 

 the vent and under tail coverts; chin white, a few of the elongated feathers 

 under the chin white mesially ; lower part of hind neck and large wing patch 

 white ; back, scapulars and upper tail coverts fulvous, mottled with buff and dark 

 brown ; tail brighter buff, with mottlings and three distinct bands, the last 

 subterminal ; first three or four primaries dark or dusky brown, the rest broadly 

 barred with rufous or bright buff, the long narrow tips mottled ; ear tufts 

 three on each side, the shafts of the feathers bare for nearly three-fourths their 

 length from their base. 



The female is pure buff throughout, clouded and barred with deep brown ; 

 lower part of the body almost white ; chin and throat white ; bill pale yellow, 

 the ridge and tip dusky brown ; irides yellow. 



Length. 17 to finches; wing 7 to 7-8; tail 4 to 4-5. Female slightly 

 larger. 



Hal. Sind, Punjab, N.-W. Provinces, Oudh, Bengal, Central and Southern 

 India, Kutch, Kattiawar, Rajputana, Concan and the Deccan during September 

 and October. Eggs, 4 5 in number, greenish of various shades in colour, 

 everywhere pitted with minute pores, but srrrooth and glossy. In Sind it 

 occurs only in the vicinity of Kurrachee during August and September, 

 chiefly at Mulleer, affecting the high grass. It breeds in the Deccan. In 

 Sind a single egg was found on the Hubb plains by Mr. F. C. Constable. 



Family, CURSORID^, COURIER PLOVERS. 



Tarsi long, slender ; bill slender, arched beyond the nostrils, which are in a 

 short triangular groove ; wings long and pointed ; tail short of 1 2 feathers ; 

 toes three ; no hind toe. 



