OTIS 



293 



wing-quills above and below black ; above, including the scapulars 

 and a few of the lesser wing-coverts barred and vermiculated with 

 black and sandy-buff ; rump, upper tail-coverts and tail with black 

 and white and less sandy-buff; primaries, primary coverts, and 

 almost all the secondaries black, the innermost of the latter with 

 white on the outer web ; carpal joint, edge of the wing and most of 

 the median and inner coverts white, forming in the folded wing a 

 conspicuous white band along its whole length. 



Iris dusky tawny brown ; bill dark horn, yellowish at the base of 

 the lower mandibles ; tarsi and feet yellow. 



Length about 21-0 ; wing 11-25 ; tail 5-5; culmen 1-20; tarsus 

 3-70. 



FIG. 95. Head of Otis afra, <? 



The female has the head, neck and chest mottled and streaked 

 and barred with black and sandy-rufous, the lower breast is quite 

 white, without or with traces of black barring, the rest of the lower 

 surface is black, as in the male. The markings on the back are 

 much more mottled, and with less regular barring as compared with 

 the male. Wing about 10*75 ; tarsus 3-50. 



A chick just hatched is a pretty little creature covered with 

 down, mottled with rich rufous-yellow and white. 



Distribution. The Black Knorhaan is confined to Cape Colony 

 south of the Orange River, north of which its place is taken by the 



