NOTES 93 



were seen on the top of Scaurnose Point, towards which the birds 

 were flying. It would be interesting to know whether any move- 

 ment was observed elsewhere on the same day. J. Gowan, 

 Cullen, Banffshire. 



Hen-harrier in Fife. On 17th January 1917, an adult 

 male Hen-harrier {Circus cyaneus) flew close over my head at 

 Balhousie, about two miles north of Largo. There had been 

 frost, and the ground had been snow-clad for some days previously, 

 while the wind had been in some northerly quarter. The bird 

 passed within fifteen yards of me as I stood beside a strip of 

 trees, so I had an excellent view of it. This species is not common 

 in Fife, this being the first time I had seen it in this part. 

 Evelyn V. Baxter, Largo. 



Notes on the Plumage, etc., of the Little Bustard. 



Dr Hartert has some interesting notes on this species in the 

 recently issued number of the Novitates Zoologies (xxiii., pp. 337- 

 339)- These relate to the structure of the wing, the moults, 

 and a new racial form. 



The wing formula differs in the sexes, and is highly peculiar 

 in the male, in which the fourth primary is decidedly shorter 

 than the third and fifth, its outer web is much contracted in 

 the middle, while the inner web is contracted in its basal half 

 and is abruptly wider in the middle. The result is that when 

 the bird is on the wing, a small gap is likely to appear, and this 

 may account for the piping note alluded to by observers. 



The annual moults differ from those of other pala^arctic Bustards, 

 since the male is strikingly different in his summer and winter dress : 

 the latter is assumed by a complete moult after the breeding 

 season, the former by a partial moult affecting the head and 

 neck, which become lavender grey and black and white respectively. 

 The adult female has only one moult at the end of summer, and 

 her plumage is alike at all seasons. 



Dr Hartert finds that there is an Eastern race in which the 

 birds are darker, less sandy, and less reddish, and the markings 

 as a rule are coarser. This he has named Otis tetrax orietitalis. 

 It is a native of Western Siberia, Afghanistan, Turkestan, and 

 westwards through Transcaspia and Southern Russia to Rumania, 

 Greece, Austria, and South Italy, and breeds occasionally in East 

 Central and Mid-Southern Europe. 



