33 
and the pouch in the throat inflated with air, and looking like a 
large bladder ; under the hillock where the male was thus displaying 
himself were several young ones.’ In corroboration of this, a boy 
told me on the 17th May 1850, that about four days previously he had 
seen a Bustard, with a white-looking bag hanging below the neck. 
I see in Dr. Jerdon’s Catalogue, that he gives an extract from Mr. 
Elliot’s notes to this effect ; speaking of the cock Bustard, he says: 
** He was strutting about on some high ground, expanding his tail, 
ruffling his wings, and distending his neck and throat, making the 
feathers stand out like a ruff.” I do not find it recorded that the 
large Bustard of Europe (O. tarda) has this habit of showing him- 
self off during the breeding season. The egg of the Black-headed 
Bustard varies in size ; the one sent with this paper measures 3,3;ths 
in. in length, by 2,3,ths in. in width. It also varies in colour ; the 
general colour is a brownish olive, dashed with pale brown. One 
egg which I had was of a nearly uniform palish blue. The egg now 
sent was found in a grassy spot on 18th December. As everything 
relating to this noble bird is interesting, I give a description of a 
young one brought to me on 28th December 1849. It stood about 
10 inches in height ; its beak was of a dirty whitish colour, nostrils 
large ; irides clear pale hazel, and eyes very large; back mottled, 
very much as in the old birds, as also the wing feathers ; front of 
the neck pale yellowish-brown, with a dark streak running down the 
sides ; legs dull yellowish-white, feet the same, knee-joints very thick ; 
there was down on the neck. This was quite a young bird, very 
feeble on its legs, and barely able to stand. The Black-headed 
Bustard utters, when frightened, a harsh barking note. Its flight is 
like that of the Heron, a steady flight, sustained by the continued 
flapping of its large wings. 
Oris Aurita (Lath.). Frorixin. 
I have not met with the Florikin sufficiently often to allow me to 
enter into the argument as to whether the Black Florikin is the male 
bird in its breeding plumage, or a distinct species from the common 
brown Florikin, but Dr. Jerdon’s arguments in his “ Illustrations of 
Indian Ornithology,’ appear conclusive, that the black and brown 
are one and the same bird in different states of plumage. But this 
point might soon be set at rest, by sportsmen and ornithologists in 
India ascertaining whether the black plumaged birds are ever met 
with during the cold weather and spring. That the male of the 
Little Bustard (Otis tetrax) should to a certain extent assume this 
black plumage during the breeding season, affords strong ground for 
the supposition that the Black Florikin is the male in his nuptial 
dress. The Florikin breeds during the end of the monsoon, laying 
three eggs of a dark olive-green colour, spotted and dashed with 
light brown, 1,8,ths in. in length, by 1,%,ths in. in width, the greatest 
width being about the centre. The egg now sent was procured with 
two others early in September. An officer, who was out shooting, 
put up a Florikin and killed it, and on going to the spot where she 
rose, found three eggs. I had two specimens of the Florikin sent 
No. CCLXXXVI.—PrRocEEDINGS OF THE ZOOLOGICAL Society. 
