GRALLM. 



state of domestication in the little flower-gardens which occupy the inner courts of the 

 houses of the aristocracy, and here it works for its living by keeping the garden clear 

 of insects, worms, reptiles, etc." 



The Indian and Australian genus, Esacus, is characterized by its much larger bill. 

 Its coloring is gray above, whitish beneath, with no spots. In size it is considerably 

 larger than the stone-plovers, and equal to that of the smaller bustards. 



The OTIDID^E, or bustards, compose the second holorhinal family, forming a well- 

 circumscribed group, externally characterized by the short, somewhat vaulted bill 

 without prominent chin angle, the long and stout legs finely reticulated anteriorly 

 and behind. The toes are very short and stout, their number only three, and Forbes 

 failed in discovering even a trace of the hind toe underneath the skin. In their gen- 



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eral aspect these birds closely resemble the gallinaceous type, which in their habits 

 they also recall to a certain extent. Some of the species are very large, the size 

 ranging from that of a turkey to that of a willow-ptarmigan, being generally very 

 stoutly built. Notwithstanding this apparent clumsiness the bustards fly well, and 

 run with amazing swiftness, which once caused them to be included with the Ostriches 

 in an " order " called Cursores. They are, consequently, especially adapted to the 

 open country, and are, in fact, " the birds of the steppes par excellence" Their food 

 is chiefly vegetable, thus differing widely from most of the members of the present 

 order. It is strange that, notwithstanding the fact of some of the species occuring 

 and breeding in central Europe, the question whether these birds are polygamous, as 

 has been asserted, or not, cannot be said to be finally settled yet, though the nega- 

 tive evidence seems to be the stronger. The family belongs exclusively to the Old 

 World, no form being found in America. The centre of distribution of its about 



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thirty-five species may be said to be Africa, but many species occur in central and 

 southern Asia, and two are regular inhabitants of the temperate lowlands of Europe. 

 Also Australia has its representation, but it is a significant fact that bustards are 

 absent in Madagascar and the Malay Islands. Of structural peculiarities in this group 

 may be mentioned that several species have a gular pouch with an opening under- 

 neath the tongue. This pouch is capable of being inflated. It is especially well 

 developed in the great bustard of Europe ( Otis tarda), and much speculation as to 

 its use has been indulged in. Some thought it a water-reservoir, while others, from 

 the fact that sometimes a few seeds or some trifling quantity of grass have been found 

 in it, believed that it was used as a receptacle for food. There is no doubt any longer, 

 however, that the presence of this sac during the breeding season is simply a secondary 

 sexual character, and that it is only a temporary air-chamber, to be inflated and dis- 

 tended during the " showing off." Not less interesting is the fact that the pouch is 

 absent in many species, and that a simple distension of the oesophagus in some results 

 in the neck swelling and depending in a similar manner. Another anatomical peculi- 

 arity is that members of the genus Eupodotis have only one carotid artery, the 

 right one, while in other birds with only one carotid it is the left that is present. 



Many of the species are adorned with strutting bristles, ruffs, or feather-tufts. One 

 of the smallest species is the one figured, the little bustard (0. tetras}, of common 

 occurrence in southern Europe, and not larger than a grouse. Another species which 

 also occurs in Europe, though only as an accidental straggler, is the western Asiatic 

 houbara (Honbara macqueenii). How this bird, which is intermediate in size 

 between the great and the little bustards, is chased by the aid of the camel, may be 

 of interest to the sportsman, and the following is therefore borrowed from Hume's 

 VOL. iv. 8 



