1246. Eupodotis edwardsi

1246. Eupodotis Edwardsi, Gray,

III. Ind. Zool. pl. 59; Gould, C. B. pl. 73 ; Jerdon, B. Ind. iii. p. 607; Murray, Hdbk., Zool., &c, Sind, p. 204; id., Vert. Zool. Sind, p. 217 ; Hume and Marsh., Nests and Eggs iii. p. 557; id., Game Birds, i. p. 7, pl, (Tokdar, Sind.) -

The Indian Bustard.

Male, - Top of head and crest black ; sides of the face, neck all round, breast and entire lower parts white; the feathers of the breast and lower part of the neck long and hackled, those of the breast covered with minute dusky mottlings; a dark band across the breast; back, scapulars, wing and upper tail coverts brown, pale buff, or grey brown, beautifully mottled and vermiculated with minute black striae; primaries snuff brown, darker on their inner webs, and tipped with white ; some of the inner ones with 3 - 4 white patches on their inner webs; secondaries slaty, much irrorated basally, and broadly tipped with white; tertials as long as the primaries, concolorous with the back, also the lesser wing coverts; median coverts black, tipped with white; greater wing coverts slaty grey, also tipped with white. Tail like the back with a subterminal dark band and tipped with white ; flanks and sides dark brown, mixed with whitish or dark olive brown ; vent and lower tail coverts the same as the back, with white tippings to the feathers.

Male, Length. - 45 to 50 inches; expanse of wing 85 - 95 inches; wing 24-5 to 29; bill from gape 4 to 4.75 ; tarsi 7.51

Female, Length. - 36 to 38 inches; wings 20 to 22 ; legs and feet creamy yellow; irides yellow ; bill yellowish at tip, dusky at the base.

Hab - Sind (Thurr and Parkur), Punjab, N. W. Provinces, Kutch, Rajputana, N. Guzerat, Kattiawar, Jodhpore, Hydrabad (Deccan), Poona, Satara, Berars, and the Central Provinces. According to Mr. Doig, {Hume, Game Birds,) it is a permanent resident and breeds in the Thurr and Parkur districts. It is said to wander occasionally in the cold weather to the plains along the edge of the desert, sometimes going even as far as the Indus. It feeds on grain and insects, and frequents the cultivated districts at other than in the breeding season. Jerdon has an excellent description of its habits, &c. Breeds from July to September, laying from one to two eggs in a depression in the ground behind tufts of grass or small bushes, lined very sparingly with thin grass.