OTIS AURITA. 



after, on account of the delicacy and delicious flavour of its flesh, and on 

 this account, and its rarity, bears a very high price in the Indian mar- 

 kets. The skins of two males we have received differ from each other 

 in the quantity of black upon the under parts of the body, indicating the 

 change of plumage to which they are periodically subject. The one from 

 which our figure is taken, appears to have attained its perfect summer or 

 nuptial dress, the neck and under parts being of a uniform black : the 

 other has the same parts intermixed and blotched with white and tawny 

 feathers, shewing that the change with respect to it had not been perfected 

 at the time of its capture. In some parts of India it is called the Black 

 Florikin : in others, according to Latham, the Oerail and Abluk-cherui. 

 We have placed this bird provisionally in the genus Otis of authors, as we 

 have hitherto had no opportunity, from the difficulty of procuring the va- 

 rious species it embraces, of bringing them together under one view, to 

 make the observations necessary for their separation into groups, or regu- 

 lating their arrangement according to their affinities. It appears, however, 

 as well as Otis Bengalensis, O. Houbara, and other species, to differ in many 

 respects from the true Bustards, of which Otis Tarda is the type. The 

 bill in three species, and particularly in the one now under consideration, 

 being longer in proportion, and more depressed at the base : their legs are 

 also longer, and naked to a farther extent above the tarsal joint ; and in 

 Otis anrita the toes are divided nearly to their origin, instead of being 

 connected by a membrane. In Otis aurita, the form of the greater quills 

 is very peculiar, though they have remained unnoticed by naturalists ; and 

 it is probable that the same peculiarity may be found to exist in other 

 nearly allied species. A figure of one of the feathers is given on the same 

 plate with the bird, which shews the emargination which takes place at 

 two-thirds of its length, and the narrow and bristle-like point to which it 

 is drawn. This is not confined to the male, as the other sex has them of 

 the same form. 



Length from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail, about eighteen 

 inches ; of the bill from base to tip, one inch three-eighths. Length of 

 tarsus four inches. Under mandible, and margins of upper, ochre-yellow. 

 Region of eyes and cheeks white, with a few black feathers interspersed ; 

 ear-coverts, chin and throat, white. Behind the ears, on each side of the 

 head, a tuft of four setaceous or capillary feathers, the two longest being 

 upwards of three inches in length, and each dilating at the tip into an oval 

 tuft. Crown of head, neck, and under parts of the body, deep black, in 

 some specimens mixed with white and tawny feathers. Ridge of wings, 



