90 EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



MACQUEEN'S BUSTAKD. 



{Otis macqueeni.)* 



Plate 23, Fig. 1. 



Two specimens of Macqueen's Bustard have been obtained in 

 England. The breeding range of the species appears to be 

 confined, so far as is known, to Turkestan, from Yarkand to the 

 eastern shores of the Caspian, extending northwards into the 

 extreme south-west of Siberia, as far east as Lake Saisan, and 

 southwards into Persia and Afghanistan. 



Whether it builds a nest, or merely lays its eggs in a hollow on 

 the bare plain, those naturalists who have been on its breeding- 

 grounds omit to say. Doubtless in its nidification it resembles 

 its close ally the African Houbara, whose nest is only a depression 

 in the ground, with no lining. I have an egg of this species in my 

 collection which was obtained by Tancre's collectors on the Altai 

 Mountains. It is huffish-brown or rich stone-colour, sparingly 

 blotched and spotted with surface-markings of dark brown, and 

 with paler underlying blotches of the same colour and dull grey ; 

 the spots are evenly distributed over the entire surface, but none 

 of them are very bold or decided. This specimen measures 2*55 

 inches in length and P85 inch in breadth. It will be noticed 

 that the egg of the present species is of a very distinct type from 

 either of the other British Bustards, and more closely approaches 

 that of the Plovers. 



THE THICK-KNEE. 

 ( QBdicneirms crepitans.) f 



Plate 2:3, Fig. 3. 



The distribution in England of the Thick-knee, or, as it is 

 frequently called, the Stone-curlew, or Norfolk Plover, is very 

 similar to the former distribution of the Great Bustard in our 

 islands. 



On the Continent the Stone-curlew does not breed north of the 

 Baltic. It is a resident throughout the basin of the Mediter- 

 ranean ; but to France, Holland, Belgium, Germany, and South 



* Houbara macqueenii — Sharpe, Handb., III., p. 123. 

 f CEdicnemus scolopax — Saunders, Manual, p. 515. QL. oedicnemus — Sharpe, Handb., 



III., p. 127. 



