STPIJEOTJS. 201 



mixed buff and dark brown ; wing-coverts paler, pale buff pre- 

 dominating ; primary coverts and quills brownish black with 

 Avhite mottling, forming more or less distinct bars confined to 

 inner webs of first primaries and to outer webs and tips of later 

 secondaries, on which the mottling is buff; tail rufous-buff, with 

 black mottling and cross-bars; chin and throat white; lores and 

 sides of head and neck and lower parts from throat pale sandy 

 buff, with a few black markings on sides of head, neck, and breast, 

 on fore neck and upper breast ; under wing-coverts much blotched 

 with black ; axillaries black. 



The male in breeding-plumage has a long median erectile crest- 

 on the head and nape, and the feathers of the chin, throat, and 

 fore neck are conspicuously elongated. Head, neck, and lower 

 parts black : back and scapulars black, with mottlings and a few 

 narrow V-shaped markings of buff; outer scapulars entirely black ; 

 wing-coverts white ; primaries and secondaries white, except a 

 progressively diminishing portion of the outer web on the first 

 2 or 3 primaries and the tips of the first 6 or 7, which are black, 

 as also an increasing portion, chiefly on the inner web, of the 

 later secondaries ; tertiaries mottled black and buff like the back, 

 and with black cross-bars ; rump and upper tail-coverts black 

 speckled with buff; tail-feathers black, the middle two or three 

 pairs with mottled buff bars, gradually disappearing on the outer 

 leathers, which are all tipped white. 



The black plumage of the male is acquired by a moult, and is 

 retained partly or wholly by some birds in the winter ; but in 

 others, probably younger, it appears to be replaced by the ordinary 

 garb of the female. Blyth noticed the latter change repeatedly in 

 birds kept in confinement. 



Bill dusky above, yellowish beneath ; irides brown in males, 

 dull yellow in females ; legs dingy pale yellowish (Jerdon). Irides 

 pale yellow to golden in both sexes (Hume}. 



Length of male about 26 ; tail 6*5 ; wing 13*5 ; tarsus 5*6 ; bill 

 from gape 2-5. Females are larger in general : wing 14 to 14-75. 

 Distribution. The country between the base of the Himalayas 

 and the Ganges River, together with the plain of Assam. Rare 

 stragglers have occurred west of the'Ganges as far as the Jumna, 

 but not farther west. This Bustard is most common in the grass 

 of the Terai. 



Habits, fyc. Very similar to those of S. aurita, but the larger 

 Plorican is resident in the high grass of the Gangetic plain (not, 

 however, in thick cover), and does not migrate; it has also a slower 

 and heavier flight. The cocks have the same habit of jumping up 

 above the grass in the breeding-season, June and July. According 

 to Hodgson, these birds do not pair, and the female lays two eggs 

 beside a tuft of grass in deep cover, without any nest. The only 

 egg of which the measurements are recorded was 2-6 by 1'76, 

 dull pale green stone-colour, sparingly streaked and blotched with 

 dull brown. This Elorican is one of the most delicious game- 

 birds of India. 



