Illustrations of Indiayi Ornithology. 



hiud ueck finely speckled with brown ; chin and throat white. First three quills 

 almost entirely dark brown, the subsequent ones fulvous, barred with brown ; wing 

 coverts with only a few small bars of brown. 



The male in winter plumage differs from the female only in always (I believe) 

 having the shoulders and part of the wing coverts partially white, and in the under 

 wing coverts being dark brown, whilst in the female they arc pale fulvous, some 

 lengthened feathers of the sides alone being brown in her. 



The down at the base of all the feathers is pale pink, and the feather of the 

 wing when freshly moulted, have a beautiful bloom on them, partly pink, and partly 

 greenish. The quills are much narrowed, and iu the male exceedingly acuminated, 

 sometimes ending in a point almost as fine as that of a needle, as Colonel Sykes first 

 pointed out; and this, with the smaller dimensions of wing, tarsus, Stc, will always 

 point out to the sportsman the sex of the bird he has shot. Colonel Sykes also men- 

 tions that the feathers of the back and scapulars are triangular at the point. 



The Florikin of Southern India has, I see, been lately placed in a new sub- 

 genus of Otis, named Sypheotides by Lesson, a division, which the smaller size of the 

 male, its ear-tufts, and other peculiarities perhaps would warrant us in adopting. 1 

 have not seen any account of a similar diiference between the sexes of any of the 

 African small Bustards, and in the European little Bustard as well as in the large 

 Bustards of Europe and India, the male bird is much the largest of the two. 



I see it mentioned in YarrelFs British Birds, that the little Bustard of Europe 

 also undergoes a periodical change in the breeding season, assuming a black collar on 

 the neck, with a white gorget and ring. 



