640 Catalogue of Birds in the Dukhun. [Dec. 



so abrupt and short, that ere the gun is well up to the shoulder, the bird is down 

 again, frides, straw-yellow. Length, inclusive of tail, 5.7 inches : tail 1.4 inches* 

 Fam. Strufhionidce, Vigors. — Genus Otis, Linn. Bustard. 



166. Otis nigriceps, Gold's Cent. Himal. Birds. 



This noble bird is so common in the Dukhun, that one gentleman has shot nearly 

 a thousand. Gregarious.. Egg, a perfect oval, brown olive, with obscure blotches 

 of darker brown olive. Length 3.4 inches, diameter 2.7 inches. One only found in 

 a hole in the earth on the open plain, and that considerably advanced in the pro- 

 cess of incubation. Irides, deep brown. Length, male, inclusive of tail, 56^ inch- 

 es : tail 13 J inches. Female 41§ inches, inclusive oftailofl0§ inches. Male sup- 

 plied with the remarkable gular pouch common to the Otis tarda. 



167. Otis fulva. Ot. supra cacaotico-brunnea, plumis fulvo marginatis variegatisque ; 



tegminibus alarum, collo, pectorequef ulvis, punctis lineisve brunneis parce notatis; 

 ventre, uropygio, femoribus, tegminibusque caudce inferioribus fulvo-albis : tegmini- 

 bus alarum inferioribus lateribusque cacaotico-nigris ; caudd fulvdfasciis quatuor 

 cacaotico-brunneis notatd; mento guldque albis; vertice brunneo, strigd media 

 longitudinali alba. 

 Irides rufescenti-lutescentes, radiis a pupilla pallide' lutescentibus. Pedes flave- 

 scentes. Longitudo corporis $, 15.6 unc, caudce 3.4: corporis £ , 17.4, caudce 

 3.4. 

 The wings are of unequal length in the sexes ; and the quills are singularly acumi- 

 nated, f 

 Col. Sykes gives the following detailed description of the Otisfulva: Forehead, crown, 

 back, scapulars, and first three quills rich chocolate brown ; feathers of the back 

 and scapulars triangular at the point, edged with fulvous, and barred in the centre 

 and near the base with a broad bar of fulvous, mottled with chocolate. Round the 

 eyes, a streak down the centre of the crown, whole neck, breast, wing-coverts, 

 and tail buff or fulvous ; the back neck closely speckled with minute dots of 

 brown. On the wing-coverts a few scattered lines and specks of brown. Tail 

 with four distant fuscous bars, the intermediate spaces beautifully barred with 

 flexuose lines of fuscous. The fourth and following quills and secondaries marked 

 like the tail. Two irregular fuscous streaks down the fore neck. Breast fulvous, 

 with a few faint lines and spots of brown. Belly, vent, under tail-coverts, and 

 thighs yellowish white. Under wing-coverts and sides of the body fine choco- 

 late brown. Occasionally a feather is tipped with white on the wing-coverts. 

 Upper mandible fuscous, lower yellowish. Chin and throat white, extending up 

 towards the ears. Sexes exactly alike in plumage. The down at the base of all 

 the feathers pink. Primary quills singularly acuminated, particularly in the male, 

 terminating in a point as fine as that of a needle ; less so in the female, and the wingg 

 of the latter are from one to two inches longer than those of the female. This 

 difference is constant. 

 Col. Sykes stated that his description was written from eight specimens lying before 



him, and that he had transmitted three .fimilar to the India House. 

 Some of Col. Sykes' s sporting friends in India having expressed a belief that the 

 Otis fulva was the female of the black Floriken of the Dukhun, (a comparatively 

 rare bird, the Otis fulva being common,) he was induced to pay particular attention 

 to the organs of sex, and never found the testes and ova otherwise than fully deve- 

 loped. If therefore it be referrible as an immature bird to a known species, (Otis 

 Bengalensis, Otis aurita, or Otis Indica,) it appears in the Dukhun in hundreds, 

 with all the indications of puberty, at a time when the supposed parents are rarely, 

 if at all, to be met with. Col. Sykes's birds are identical with a specimen laid 

 before the Society by Major Franklin on the 9th of August, 1831, under the name 

 of Otis Indica ; Major Franklin, at the same time, expressing doubts of it being 

 the white-chinned Bustard of Dr. Latham. The description of the Otis Indica has 

 only two features common to the Otis fulva, " chin white," and " under parts dusky 

 yellowish cream colour ;" as they differ in all other particulars, the birds cannot 

 be identical ; and a reference to a figui-e of the Otis Indica, which is only to be met 

 with in J. H. Miller, confirms the impression. Col. Sykes believes with Major 

 Franklin that the present species has been usually mistaken for the female of Otis 

 aurita. — A correspondent in the Magazine of Natural History, No. 16, for Novem- 

 ber, 1830, under the signature of " A Subscriber," page 517, confirms Col. 

 Sykes's opinion, stating that the Churj or ochreous Floriken (small Bustard 

 of India) is not the Otis Indica (white-chinned Bustard) , nor the Otis Bengalensis, 

 nor the black Floriken (Otis aurita) or Leek of Hindostan. 

 Col. Sykes stated the food of the Otis nigriceps and the Otisfulva to be almost ex- 

 clusively grasshoppers; and he pointed out the absence of a gizzard ( the stomach 

 being simple), combined with the remarkable shortness of the intestinal canal, 

 scarcely exceeding the length of the body, as distinguishing these birds irom all 

 others that had come under his observation. 



