ON THE OCCUEllENCK OP A EUPFED -BUSTARD. 347 



curved fcatliers quite white. The upper ones white at the base 

 and black for the rest of their length. The feathers in front of 

 the crest and sides of the head light fawn colour, finely vermi- 

 culated with brownish bars with a few hair-like feathers at the 

 base of the culinen or upper mandible. The auriculars form a 

 tuft of fine, rather long feathers directed backwards. They are 

 slightly tinged with delicate fawn colour at the distal ends and 

 whiter at the base. 



Chin and upper throat white, becoming a delicate fawn or 

 cream colour vermiculated with brownish bars, the whole washed 

 over with a tinge of bright silvery grey, below which the long 

 grey plumes of the crop spring out, hang down, and cover the 

 breast feathers. On each side of the neck below the auricular 

 tufts, springs a large, long tuft of deep black, ribbon-shaped 

 feathers, some of which are white at the base ; gradually be- 

 coming longer lower down, and hanging with a slight sigmoidal 

 -curve downwards and backwards over the shoulders and back. 

 The longest of these are about 4^ inches. The whole of the back 

 and all the wing and tail- coverts and the tail feathers are of a 

 rich cream or reddish fawn colour, darker here and there ; the 

 greater coverts extending nearly to the ends of the primaries. 

 All the feathers of the upper surfaces are marked with fine deli- 

 cate zig-zag, dark vermiculations ; the vermiculations becoming 

 larger and darker about the centre of each feather, where there 

 is a large arrow-head-shaped or cuspidate patch of black, the 

 finer vermiculations being continued below to the edge of each 

 feather, excepting along and close to the side of each shaft below 

 the black cuspidate markings. 



Under parts of the body pure white, except the lower portion 

 of under-tail coverts and the sides of the tail-coverts, which are 

 strongly vermiculated and banded with black. 



The back of neck or nape of a light colour and vermiculated 

 or barred as on the throat, but more silvery white. 



The primaries are white at the base, graduating by a slight 

 wash of fawn colour into a rich brownish black from about half 

 their length to the distal ends. A few of the primaries are edged 

 with white at the tips. 



