156 



minibus alarum itiferioribus luieribusque cacaotko-nigris ; 

 Cauda fulvd fasciis quatuor cacaotico-brunneis notatd ; viento 

 gulaque albis; vertice brunneo, strigd medid longitudinali albd. 

 Irides rufescenti-lutescentes, radiis a pupilUi pallide lutes- 

 centibus. Pea?^5 flavescentes. Longitudo cor^om (J, 15, V 

 unc, caudce 3tV : corporis'^, 17iV> caudce 3 ,V. 



The wings are of unequal length in the sexes ; and the quills are 

 singularly acuminated. 

 Col. Sykes gives the following detailed description of the Otis fulva : 



Forehead, crown, back, scapulars, and first three quills rich cho- 

 colate brown ; feathers of the back and scapulars triangular 

 at the point, edged with fulvous, and barred in the centre and 

 near the base with a broad bar of fulvous mottled with choco- 

 late. Round the eyes, a streak down the centre of the 

 ^crown, whole neck, breast, wing-coverts, and tail buff or 

 fulvous ; the back neck closely speckled with minute dots of 

 brown. On the wing-coverts a few scattered lines and specks 

 of brown. Tail with -i distant fuscous bars, the intermediate 

 spaces beautifully barred with flexuose lines of fuscous. The 

 fourth and following quills and secondaries marked like the 

 tail. Two irregular fuscous streaks down the foi'eneck. Breast 

 fulvous, with a few faint lines and spots of brown. Belly, vent, 

 under tail-coverts, and thighs yellowish white. Under wing- 

 coverts and sides of the body fine chocolate brown. Occa- 

 sionally a feather is tipped with white on the wing-coverts. 

 Upper mandible fuscous, lower yellowish. Chin and throat 

 white extending up towards the ears. Sexes exactly alike in 

 plumage. The down at the base of all the feathers pink. Pri- 

 mary quills singularly acuminated, particularly in the male, 

 terminating in a point as fine as that of a needle ; less so in the 

 female, and the wings of the latter are from one to two inches 

 longer than those of the male. This difference is constant. 



Col. Sykes stated that his description was written from eight 

 specimens lying before him, and that he had transmitted three 

 siiiiilar to the India House. 



Some of Col. Sykes's sporting friends in India having expressed 

 a belief that the Otisjiilva was the female of the black Floriken 

 of the Dukhun, (a comparatively rare bird, the Otis Jidva 

 being common,) he was induced to pay particular attention to 

 the organs of sex, and never found the testes and ova otherwise 

 than fully developed. If therefore it be referable as an imma- 

 ture bird to a known species, (^Otis Bengaloisis, Otis aiirita, or 

 Otis Lidica,) it appears in the Dukhun in hundreds, with all 

 the indications of puberty, at a time when the supposed pa- 

 rents are rarely, if at all, to be met with. Col, Sykes's birds 

 are identical with a specimen laid before the Society by Major 

 Franklin on the 9th of August 1831, under the name oi' Otis 

 Indica ; Major Franklin at the same lime expressing doubts 

 of it being the xvhite-chinued Bustard cf Dr. Latham. The 

 dcscripiiun of the Otis Indica has only two features conunon 



