322 OTTDID.E, 



delicately and minutely pencilled with black, and each feather 

 with a subterminal black band visible externally, and another at 

 the base of the feathers ; upper tail-coverts with the black bands 

 narrower, distant, and more or less ashy ; tail banded with bluish- 

 ashy, and all the lateral feathers broadly tipped with creamy- 

 white ; greater wing-coverts tipped with white ; primaries white 

 at their base, black for the terminal half, and most so on the 

 outer web ; lesser wing-coverts and scapulars more or less spotted 

 with black, not barred ; the shorter quills and the winglet black, 

 the former tipped with white ; the cheeks are white, with black 

 shafts and tips ; the throat white ; neck fulvous-ashy ; belly 

 and lower parts, including the lower surface of the wings, white ; 

 under tail-coverts slightly barred ; the neck ruff in its full inte- 

 grity during the breeding season begins from the ear-coverts ; 

 the feathers are moderately long, about two inches, and entirely 

 black and silky ; on the sides of the neck they are at least six 

 inches long, white at the base and with black tips ; and where 

 they terminate are still longer, wholly white, varying in texture, 

 and with more or less disunited webs, very fine and curving down- 

 wards below. 



The sexes, except as regards length of ruff and crest, are near- 

 ly alike in plumage, but the female is lighter in color, and is 

 always considerably smaller. 



During the cold weather the Houbara is very common in Sind. 

 It occurs at the same season, but much more rarely in Guzerat 

 and Rajputana. 



It does not breed in India, but is supposed to do so in Afghan- 

 istan. 



GENUS, Sypheotides, Lesson. 



Bill moderately long and broadish ; legs lengthened, with a 

 large portion of the tibia bare ; in nuptial plumage the male 

 with more or less white wings, and mostly black plumage, highly 

 crested or with ear-tufts, and, in some, the breast plumes greatly 

 developed. 



Females larger than the males. 



Sypheotides aurita, Latham. 



839. Jerdon's Birds ^oTlndiarVol. II, p. 619 ; Butler, Guzerat ; 



Stray Feathers, Vol. IV, p. 10 ; Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol. 



IX, p. 424 ; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 220 ; 



Game Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 33; Swinhoe and Barnes, 



C}\ --Central India; Ibis, 1885, p. 132. 



THE LESSER FLORICAN. 



Likh, Hin. 

 Kermoor, Hin. 



<?. Length, 17'25 to 19 ; expanse, 27*5 to 32 ; wing, 7'3 to 7'9 ; 

 tail, 4-1 to 4-5 ; tarsus, 3'65 to 3'9 ; bill from gape, 2 to 2'1 ; 

 weight, 14 oz. to 1 Ib. 



