1110 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXI. 



p. 378; Finn, Indian Waders, p. 123; Inglis, Journal B. N. H. 

 Soc. xiv, p. 766 ; id, ihid, xvi, p. 73 ; Wall, ibid, xvi, p. 388 ; 

 Stnart Baker, ihid, xvii, p. 538. 



Houharopsis hengalensis. — Sliarpe, Cat. B. M. xxiii, p. 315; id., 

 Hand L. i, p. 175; Gates, Cat. Eggs. B. M. i, p. 88; id. Game 

 B. of Ind. i, p. 414. 



Vernacidar Names. — Charas, Chars, Charat, H; Dahar, Ablak c? 

 Bor 2 J Terai ; Ulamora, Assamese ; Dao-tiriling, Gachari. 



Vescrijdion, Adtdt m^ale. — Whole head, neck and lower parts 

 very glossy black, in some lights shewing a distinct blue or 

 purplish sheen, more especially on the feathers of the breast and 

 crest. Back black, each feather with two broad bars of buff' 

 mottled with black, the general appearance of the back being thus 

 a mottled black and buff", the former predominating. The bases 

 of the feathers are black and in quite freshly plumaged birds 

 there is a narrow buff* fringe to the tips of the feathers, which, 

 however, soon gets abraded off* so that the tips generally appear 

 black. Inner scapulars like the back, but the mottlings are even 

 more irregular, the centres to the feathers are chiefly black and 

 the surrounding portions vermiculated buff" and black. Tail, 

 four centre feathers like the back, but the outermost are entirely 

 black with narrow white tips and the intermediate feathers grade 

 from one to the other. Outer scapulars black, a few of the feathers 

 more or less mottled with buff", on the inner webs, inner second- 

 aries like the back, but with numerous bars of black, not always 

 the same in number ; remaining quills white, except the outer 

 webs and part of the inner webs of the first and second primary, 

 which are black ; in some birds the outer web of the third primary 

 is also nearly all black and this black diminishes in extent on 

 each succeeding quill, remaining only as a black tip to the outer 

 webs of the innermost primaries and disappearing altogether on the 

 outer secondaries. The shafts of all the wing quills are black. 



Bill, upper mandible dark brown, sometimes with a leaden 

 tinge, lower mandible paler and more leaden and often with a 

 yellow tinge on the basal two-thirds. Iris brown, Hume says 

 sometimes yellow. Legs straw yellow, sometimes with a tinge 

 of green or plumbeous. 



