
ILLUSTRATIONS OF FOREIGN OOLOGY. 
though Mr. Hodgson asserts, that “‘ Even in the season of love, the 
intercourse of the sexes among adults is quite transitory, and is 
conducted without any of that jealousy and pugnacity which so 
eminently distinguish most birds at that period.” Our friend above 
referred to (and who has shot many of these birds) assures us, that 
he once saw two males fighting desperately, and so eagerly, that 
upon being disturbed they renewed their conflict at a short distance, 
which ended by his bagging them both. Mr. Hodgson is also. cer- 
tainly mistaken in his assertion, that the nuptial dregs is worn 
permanently, as we have witnessed the change before described, and 
the subsequent partial renewal of the breeding livery, which latter 
was not well developed in captivity, and have likewise observed 
the fact in the skins of wild specimens.* “ The eggs,” writes 
Mr. Hodgson, “ are of the size and shape of an ordinary domestic 
fowl’s, but one sensibly larger and more richly coloured than the 
other. This larger and more highly tinted egg is that of the male 
young, the smaller and less and richly hued egg that of the female 
progeny.” In general we should say, however, that the adult 
female is somewhat larger than the male, as the female Sikh is 
constantly. Tho ege figured we took from the oviduct, and believe 
it to be what Mr, Hodgson considers as that which would have pro- 
duced a female. That.figured by Mr. Hodgson, however, is smaller 
and more speckled, and the eggs are described by him to be “ about 
the size of those of a bantam, 2 inches long by 14 inches broad, 
and of a sordid stramineous, being very minutely dotted, and more 
largely blotched and clouded with black, somewhat as in Lobi- 
vanellus goénsis. 
The Sikh (Sypheotides aurita) or Floriken of the sportsmen, of 
Southern India; is much more extensively distributed over India 
generally than S, bengalensis, being found, we believe, wherever 
the latter occurs, also over Southern India; and “they are so 
plentiful sometimes at Guzrat, that they may be bought from the 
Wagrees alive for a few pice’ t (i.e. twopence or threepence 
* So also, Mr. Jerdon states, of the Sith or Lesser Indian Floriken. “I have 
watched,” he writes, “the progressive change in birds at Jalnah, where a few 
couple always remain and breed, from the garb of the female to the perfect Black 
-Flortken” (of Southern Indian sportsmen), “ and back again from this, the nuptial 
plumage, to the more sober livery of the rest of the year.”—“ Illustrations of Indian 
Ornithology,” Art. Otio aurita. 
t Journ. As. Soc. Beng. vi, 789, 
45 
