A FES. 127 



roosting-place at Moladah was a group of hillocks extending over several 

 acres, and covered with the mutings of the birds as thickly as the resort 

 of any sea-fowl. 



The Crane inhabits Northern Europe and Asia in summer, migrating 

 in winter to North Africa, India, and China. 



FAMILY, OTID-E. 



291. 0/is tarda. Linn. Syst. Nat. i., p. 264. Great Bustard. 

 Arab., ol£^_^, Rdad. 



The Great Bustard is not quite extinct on the Plain of Sharon, and I 

 have several times seen it on the wide, grassy plains of Northern Syria, 

 in the neighbourhood of the unfenced corn patches. 



The Great Bustard, once a native of England, is rapidly yielding 

 everywhere to the advance of human population. It is still found in 

 Southern and Central Europe, Barbary, and Western and Central Asia. 



292. Otis tctrax. Linn. Syst. Nat. i., p. 264. Little Bustard. 



The Little Bustard is found on the plains, but not in great numbers. 

 It breeds in the Plains of Sharon. I never met with it in the Ghor, 

 where the Houbara is common. Eastward I met with it in 1S81 at 

 Oorfa, in Mesopotamia. 



The Little Bustard inhabits all the countries which border on the 

 Mediterranean and Black Sea, reaching eastward through Persia as far as 

 the Punjab. 



293. Houbara imdiitata. Jacq. Beitr. Gesch. Vog., p. 24. Houbara 

 Bustard. Arab., i;W=^, Hubarah. 



The Houbara Bustard, though very shy and wild, is yet not at all 

 uncommon in the plains of the Jordan valley, and at the south end of the 

 Dead Sea. I have only once seen it on the uplands east of Jordan. It 

 is a permanent resident. 



The Houbara is a native of Northern and North-eastern Africa, but 

 very rare in Egypt and Nubia. Its true home is the Sahara, and probably 

 North Arabia. Syria appears to be its eastward limit, as the Houbara of 

 the other side of the Euphrates is the Indian species, H. macqueeni. 



