ard being the British Islands ; to the southward Oe plains of
y ea. Arabia, and Persia; to the eastward, across Mongolia, where it was met with by Mr.
Pee a a d the fe Amoor; and to the northward, Sweden and AUS The other
ae if ee 2 also confined to the Old World, particularly to Africa and Asia, with the excep_
known species é

ion of the single species found in Australia. : : 3
wT Pee ae respecting the a a eae cae = . ee
Esq., of Balrath Kells, in the county of Meath, and w

Bustard extends—the border-line to the westw

‘Transactions of the Linnean Society ’:— : "y
e ae ‘ perhaps be interested by a few remarks on the habits of the Great Bustard as observed by me in the
“ce Ou W .

neighbourhood of Seville, where it exists in large numbers. The rales begin to arrive in n cultivated part of

a - sea f February ; they come in flocks, varying from seven to fifty-three, the smallest and
ee ee eether at me season of the year. The old birds always keep together ; and those
ee ian ee it and have no beard, ae mix with them. ae females, which do mt
arrive until the beginning of April, come singly or at most in pairs; as soon as they me flocks ae ae
to disperse, and you seldom meet more than three or four males poet ae very frequently oe one. At
this time, on a fine day, they turn their tails over their backs, droop their wings, and expand their pouches:
While in this attitude, from the whiteness of the under tail-coverts, they may be oo at a great distance.
As I have never seen a female near a cock, the sexes appear to live quite separate. ee the month of May ae
males entirely disappear from the cultivated lands, and, I believe, go down to the extensive prass-mnarshes which
stretch along the Guadalquiver, leaving the females behind them. The young Bustards are hatched in the large
corn-plains about Seville, and are able to take care of themselves by July. At the end of tla month, when, the
corn being all cut, no cover remains, the hens and the young birds follow the cocks to the marisma, as ine) call the
great marshes in Spain. The heaviest bird I shot weighed 28 lbs. ; this was before the hens Cae vlan may
perhaps account for its being two pounds heavier than any I shot afterwards. It measured, oe tip to tip of the
wings, 7 feet 1 inch; while another, which weighed 26 lbs., measured 7 feet 3 inches. The birds of a year old
weigh from 8 to 10 Ibs., and are much the best to eat. All the birds I shot had their stomachs perfectly crammed
with stalks and ears of barley, the leaves of a large-leaved green weed, and a kind of black beetle. When flushed ,
the birds generally fly a distance of two miles or more, and occasionally at an altitude of at least a hundred yards.”

Captain Blakiston, of the Royal Artillery, informs me that, while in the Crimea, during the late war,

“The Great Bustard was first observed on the 19th of December, 1855, and continued flying over in great
numbers for three days. The country at the time was covered with snow. Many were killed with bullets while
flying, and after they had alighted on the hills. They did not fly in flocks, but somewhat widely dispersed, and
generally at a considerable altitude ; they appeared to come from the north, and to proceed south-east— perhaps to
the coast of Asia Minor, where they would find a comparatively warm temperature. A break of the weather soon
after occurred, and then only a few were occasionally seen. I noticed a small number proceeding north in April ;
but as their appearance was not remarked upon, there could not have been numbers together. It is most likely
that the bird breeds in the steppes of the Crimea, as some were seen near the Alma in M
for the enormous numbers which migrated in the winter, we must suppose th
of weather from the mainland of Southern Russia, and that, if some remai
season, most of them must cross the Black Sea to Asia Minor.”

Ido not usually enter into anatomical details, but a passing word is necessary respecting the supposed
existence of a pouch or sac in the throat of the Bustard. On this subject many pages of considerable in-
terest have been written by the late Mr. Yarrell in the ‘ Transactions of the Linnean Society,’ by Professor
Owen, and more recently by Mr. Alfred Newton in «The Ibis’ for 1862.
in the throat of the Great Bustard, capable of holding w
mous distention of the neck, in the old males, w
sexual excitement, and, in My opinion

ay 1856; but to account
at the greater part are driven by stress
n on the south coast during the cold

That there is no true sac or pouch
ater, there can be, I think, no doubt. The enor-
hich occurs during the pairing-season, is doubtless due to

> IS precisely analogous to what occurs at the same period in the
American Prairie-hen (Cupidonia cupido), the Great Cock of the

other birds. “At this period the entire neck of the Bustard be
of air-cells with which it is provided inflated to
by the bird are very strange during these
should another male dispute with

Plains (Centrocercus urophasianus ), and many

comes highly vascular, and the vast network
an enormous extent.

paroxysms of pleasure, or when he becomes maddened with rage,
him for the affections of the female.
a of the bird in this state of e
short while ago, in the Gardens of the Zoological Society,

a ae eo eee a nlc being about half the size of her mate, and wanting,

gthened hair-like appendages which adorn the cheeks.

its food consisting of the tops of veg
» Mice, and, it is said,
are ground, are tw

The attitudes and contortions assumed

The accompanying illustration by

Mr \ olf om KES) @) cood 1 | S VV y
° ViGx 1 1de cite f j j V i c
5 5 xcitemen 9 \ hich might ha e been dail seen, a

The Bustard is omnivorous, i i
etables, trefoil, grasses, worms, insects,
young birds. The eges, which are deposited in a

andy olive, stained and blotched with purple and

snails, frogs and other reptiles

depression on the b oin number, of a s
: Cc

reddish brown.

yy
Lhe Plate represents
‘presents a ; bi
| a female and two young birds ne

in the distance.

arly the size of life, with reduced figures of the male