94 



web at the under side, white ; in the old birds the outer parts 

 are pale-blue, tipped with white, the inner webs and under side 

 nearly black." 



June 6 th. Dr. Goldie in the Chair. 



On the occurrence of Otis McQueenii, Gray, in Bug- 

 land. — By John Gould, Esq., F. R. S., &c. 



The high state of cultivation to which the British Islands 

 have attained has tended much to diminish the number of our 

 large indigenous animals, and in many instances, species both 

 of Quadrupeds and Birds have been entirely extirpated. Of 

 that noble group of Birds, the Bustards, two species of which 

 were formerly denizens of our plains and open districts, but a 

 small remnant now remains ; of the Otis tarda there is not in all 

 probability a single male left, the few that yet exist wild in the 

 British Islands being it is believed, all females and dwelling in 

 solitude among the open fields of Sufiblk and Norfolk. There 

 could not then have been added to the British Fauna a more 

 interesting bird than the Bustard, that was lately killed in 

 Lincolnshire,* and which is now the property of Mr. Higgins of 

 York. By the occurrence of this species both the faunas of 

 Great Britain and of Europe have gained an accession of no 

 ordinary value. An opinion having been mooted that this 

 Bustard was one of the African Houbaras that have lately 

 been imported into this country, and which having escaped 

 from confinement had been shot, Mr. Charlesworth requested 

 me to call at the office of the Zoological Society and favor him 

 with my opinion ; upon examining the bird, I was no less sur- 

 prized than pleased to find that it had never been in confine- 

 ment, and moreover that it was not referable to the Otis 

 Houbara, but to a species inhabiting the high table-lands of 

 Persia and Western India, described by Mr. Gray as Otis 

 McQueenii. The European species of this group are now 



* The capture of this Bustard is recorded in the Zoologist for 1848, page 1969, 

 ■where it is spoken of as the Otis Tetrax, It is subsequently alluded to as the 

 Otis Houbara, see p. 2065. 



