INDIAN HOUBARA BUSTARD. 123 



wing-coverts and deeper on the back ; upper tail-coverts and tail 

 all delicately and minutely pencilled with black, and each feather 

 with a sub-terminal black band visible externally, and another at 

 the base of the feathers ; upper tail-coverts with the black bands 

 narrower, distant, and more or less ashy ; tail banded with bluish- 

 ashy, and all the lateral feathers broadly tipped with creamy 

 white ; greater wing-coverts tipped with white ; primaries white 

 at their base, black for the terminal half, and most so on the 

 outer web ; lesser wing-coverts and scapulars more or less spotted 

 with black, not barred ; the shorter quills and the winglet black, 

 the former tipped with white ; the cheeks are white, with black 

 shafts and tips ; the throat white ; neck fulvous ashy ; belly and 

 lower parts, including the lower surface of the wings, white ; 

 under tail-coverts slightly barred; the neck-ruff in its full integrity 

 during the breeding season begins from the ear-coverts, the 

 feathers are moderately long, about 2 inches, and entirely black 

 and silky ; on the sides of the neck they are at least 6 inches long, 

 white at the base and with black tips ; and, where they terminate 

 are still longer, wholly white, varying in texture and with more 

 or less disunited webs, very fine and curving downwards 

 below. 



Bill horny slate-color ; irides bright yellow ; legs greenish- 

 yellow. Length 25 to 30 inches ; extent 4 feet ; wing 14 to 15 

 inches ; tail 9 to 10 ; tarsus 3| ; bill at front 1 J. Weight 3£ to 

 3|lbs. (Adams states the iris to be black, and the sclerotic yellow.) 



The male in non-breeding or winter plumage, appears to want 

 the fine crest, and in some, apparently, the greater part of the 

 ruff, as in the one figured in Hardwicke's Illustrations. A 

 figure among Burnes' drawings represents the male bird with his 

 coronal crest, but having the upper portion only of the neck-ruff, 

 which forms a conspicuous ear-tuft as in the Likk Florikin, but 

 of ordinary shaped feathers. Can the ruff also be a seasonal 

 ornament of the Cock-bird ? This is not alluded to in any of the 

 notices of the Indian Houbara that I have seen, but is not unlikely. 



The female is said, by the writer of the article in the Bengal 

 Sporting Magazine alluded to above, to resemble the male ; and a 

 specimen, supposed to be that of a female killed at Hansi, agreed, 



