OCCURRENCE OF THE ASIATIC HOUBARA IN SCOTLAND 73 



ON THE OCCURRENCE OF THE ASIATIC 

 HOUBARA (HOUBARA MACQUEENII} IN 

 SCOTLAND. 



By WM. EAGLE CLARKE, F.L.S. 



SOME doubt as to the identity of the bird recorded as a 

 Little Bustard in the last number of this magazine (" Ann. 

 Scot. Nat. Hist," 1899, p. 51) having arisen, Mr. Walker, 

 the owner of the specimen, kindly submitted it to me for 

 determination. 



I found, as Mr. Walker suspected, that the bird was un- 

 doubtedly an example of the Asiatic Houbara, or Macqueen's 

 Bustard. It is a young female, but whether about four 

 months old or sixteen months is, perhaps, questionable, 

 since, as in many other cases, nothing appears to be on 

 record concerning the stages through which this species 

 passes ere full plumage is assumed, or even the age at 

 which it casts the plumes of adolescence to assume those 

 of maturity. The specimen under consideration, however, 

 has an incipient crest, a moderately developed ruff on the 

 sides of the neck, and some show of bluish-gray on the sides 

 of the chest. 



This fine Bustard has not hitherto been recorded for 

 Scotland. It will be remembered that the bird under 

 notice was shot by Mr. Walker at St. Fergus, on the Pitfour 

 estate in Aberdeenshire, on the 24th of October last. 



It is the fourth British example of an Eastern species, 

 which, as its name implies, is not even a native of Europe 

 its nearest haunts being in Persia, whence it spreads east- 

 wards through the Aralo-Caspian region, Beluchistan, to 

 Northern and Western India. It is thus a remarkable ex- 

 ample of those erratic wanderers, not a few of which, from 

 time to time, appear in Britain, chiefly in the autumn 

 months. 



It is worthy of note that all the specimens of this 

 Houbara which have been known to visit our shores have 

 been obtained in the vicinity of the East Coast, and all of 



