40 THE LESSER FLORICAN OR LIKH. 



The ground colour varies from a clear, almost sap green, 

 through various shades of olive green, drab and stone colours, 

 to a darkish olive brown. I have seen no specimens exhibiting 

 the blue and bluish grounds occasionally met with in the eggs 

 of the Great Indian Bustard. 



The markings are brown, reddish or olive brown, occasionally 

 with a purplish tinge, in some very faint and feeble, obsolete, or 

 nearly so, a mere mottling ; in others conspicuous and strongly 

 marked ; but in the majority neither very faint nor very conspi- 

 cuous. In character they are generally cloudy streaks, more or 

 less confluent at the broader end (from which they run down 

 parallel to the major axis), and more or less obsolete towards 

 the smaller end. Occasionally, however, they are pretty uni- 

 formly scattered over the whole surface of the egg. 



In size, the eggs vary from 177 to 2*06 in length, and from 

 1 5 to 17 in breadth ; but the average of twenty-three eggs is 

 1 '88 nearly, by rather more than 1*59. 



This SPECIES varies much in size, probably a good deal accord- 

 ing to age, the females being all markedly larger than the males. 

 Some dimensions are :— 



Male. — Length, 17*25 to 19 ; expanse, 27*5 to 32 ; wing (to 

 end of longest primary), J"$ to 7*9 ; tail, 4-1 to 4-5 ; tarsus, 

 3-65 to 3*9 ; bill from gape, 2 to 2*1. Weight, 14 ozs. to 1 lb. 

 4 ozs. 



Female. — Length, 18 to 21*3 ; expanse, 29 to 36 ; wing, 9*0 

 to 975 ; tail, 47 to 5 ; tarsus, 3-9 to 4*4 ; bill from gape, 2*28 to 

 2'^. Weight, 1 lb. 2 ozs. to 1 lb. 10 ozs. 



The irides are dull yellow, sometimes very pale, sometimes 

 brownish ; the legs pale, somewhat fleshy yellow, sometimes 

 hoary, sometimes more dusky ; the bill is pale yellow, some- 

 what fleshy towards gape ; the ridge, tip, and more or less of the 

 upper surface shaded with dusky horny brown. 



A young nestling is thus described by Mr. J. Davidson : — 

 " Three young Florican, one only half out of the egg f were 

 brought to me yesterday (25th October). An almost uniform 

 dirty pale yellow colour, with an unclosed V (i. e., \/) on the 

 crown of the head in dingy black, and blotches, rather stripy, 

 of black on wings, back, and sides, and about the ears ; legs 

 and beak, a colour between pale blue and pale pink ; and on the 

 tip of the beak a little lump of pale pearly white." 



In both sexes, but it is more marked in the male, the earlier 

 primaries are very sharply pointed, and have the terminal one- 

 third greatly narrowed by a sudden emargination. 



The Plate, but for chromo-lithography, which brings out 

 the markings of the female too coarse and blotchy, would 

 be all that could be desired. The male in breeding plumage 



