ORD. M^ SOMES. 



GEN. OTIS. 

 PLATE XXXII I 

 OTIS' AURITA. 



THE BLACK FLORIKIN. 



Synon. — Otis Aurita — Passarage Bustard — Latham, No. 13, perhaps O. Indica ?— 

 O. fulva — Sykes — 0. Bengalensis, apud Lesson — but not of older Authors — 0. 

 Gularis — Do. 



Majok Franklin and Colonel Sykes in their Catalogues of the birds of 

 Central India and the Decean, having pronounced the common Florikin of India 

 to be a distinct species from the Black one, I entered at some length, in my Catalogue 

 of the birds of Southern India, into the reasons which led me to conclude that 

 the views entertained by these writers were erroneous, and showed that the Black 

 Florikin was nothing more than the cock-bird in the summer or breeding plumage. 

 Since that article was written, I have had considerable additional experience, and every 

 thing has tended to corroborate that opinion, and I may state, not only in my own 

 estimation, but in that of almost every sportsman of experience with whom I have 

 conversed on the subject. Some gentlemen were at first inclined to doubt this 

 change, fancying it an anomaly, but when I pointed out that many of the birds of England 

 underwent a similar periodical change, and that the Golden Plover assumed every 

 summer a plumage nearly identical with that of the Black Florikin, they no longer 

 hesitated to concur in my views. 



My reasons for believing the Black and the common Florikin to be one and 

 the same bird, may be here briefly recapitulated. 



Istly. All Black Florikin hitherto examined have been male birds. 



2ndly. The Black Floriki?! agrees exactly in size, and comparative dimensions, 

 with the male of the commo7i Florikin, as described fully by Colonel Sykes, but more 

 especially in the length of wing, and acumination of the primary quills, the points insisted 

 on by him, and most correctly so, as the essential points of diflference from the female. 



