ESACITS KECURVIEOSTKIS. 
(THE GREAT STONE-PLOYER.) 
( Edicnemus recurvirostris, Cuv. Reg. An. i. p. 500, note (1829) ; Jerdon, Madr. Joum. 
1840, xii. p. 215. 
Carvanica grisea, Hodgson, J. A. S. B. 1836, v. p. 776. 
Esacus recurvirostris (Cuv.), Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 260 (1849) ; Kelaart, Pro- 
dromus, Cat. p. 132 (1852) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiv. p. 108 ; 
Jerdon, B. of Ind. iii. p. 652 (1864) ; Beavan, Ibis, 1868, p. 391 ; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 
1872, p. 472 ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 232; id. Nests and Eggs, iii. p. 579 (1875); 
id. Str. Feath. 1875, p. 182; Ball, t.c. p. 294; Legge, Ibis, 1875, p. 401; Butler 
& Hume, Str. Feath. 1876, p. 14; Hume & Davison, ibid. 1878 (B. of Tenass.), p. 458 ; 
Davidson & Wenden, ibid. 1878, vii. p. 88; Ball, t.c. p. 227; Cripps, t.c. p. 301 ; 
Hume, ibid. 1879, viii. p. 112 (List Ind. B.). 
Curved-billed Bustard ; Bastard FloriJcin ; Curved-billed Plover of some. Burra Karwanak, 
Hind. ; AM, of Hindoo Falconers ; Gang titai, lit. “ Ganges Lapwing,” Bengal. (Jerdon) ; 
Mosul-Krandi, Mosul-Kanati , lit. “ Hare-eyed ” (Layard). 
Adult male (Ceylon). Length 200 inches ; wing 10-5 to 10-7 ; tail 475; tarsus 3-2; middle toe and claw 20 ; bill 
to gape 3-4 to 3-5. 
Female (Ceylon). Length 21-5 inches ; wing 107 to 10 '9 ; tarsus 3-5 ; middle toe and claw 23 ; bill to gape 3-6 to 37. 
Iris pale golden, marked with brown radii or pencillings ; eyelid and orbital- skin yellowish ; bill black, with the base 
of upper mandible to the nostril, and that of lower to the gonys, yellow; legs and feet pale yellowish green, the 
toes washed with brown, and the soles and posterior part of knees bluish. 
Head, hind neck, back, scapulars and rump, basal portion of tail, as also the coverts along the ulna, pale cinereous 
brown, the feathers on the upper parts with dark shafts, and the head and nape darker than the rest ; forehead 
and along past the gape, lower part of cheeks, throat, a circle round the eye, continued as a broad streak down to the 
nape, and under surface white : the throat washed with pale cinereous grey, and the feathers there with darkish 
shafts ; a streak beneath the gape and a border round the white orbital region, expanding over the ear-coverts and 
blending into the brown of the neck, black ; primaries, secondaries, a band formed by the tips of the lesser coverts, 
and the terminal portion of tail brownish black ; basal part of inner edge of quills, a bar across the first three 
primaries (on the outer web of the 1st only), the three inner primaries (with the exception of the centre part), and 
a band across the tail white ; beneath the brown wing-band a line of white formed by the bases of the next 
row of feathers. 
Immature birds have the feathers of the upper part of the back, the scapulars, and the lesser wing-coverts tipped with 
greyish ; and those of the dark wing-band edged with fulvous-brown. 
Obs. Indian examples which I have examined do not differ from Ceylonese. A specimen from Bhotan is identical 
with one of my own — wing 10-7 inches. Dimensions of Indian birds, as recorded in 1 Stray Feathers,’ are : 
d (Sindh), length 21-0 inches, wing 10-5, expanse 30'5, tail 5-5, tarsus 3-4, bill at front 3‘0, weight lib. 12 oz. 
{Hume) ; d (Furreedpore), length 20-0, wing 10-25, tail 4-5, tarsus 3-42, bill from gape 3-42 {Cripps). 
Esacus magnirostris , Geoffr., is the Austro-Malayau representative of the present bird, and has recently been found in 
the Andaman Islands. It is a larger, darker, and more massive-billed form of the Indian bird. In plumage it 
differs in having the head and face much darker ; the sides of the crown and nape, cheeks, and ear-coverts blackish 
brown, and the top of the head deeper browD than in the present bird ; the winglet and the lesser wing-coverts 
are dark brown, and the white wing-bar succeeds the latter part ; the upper part of the throat is white and the 
lower dusky, with the feathers striated. An Australian specimen in the national collection measures 2-7 inches 
