LITTLE BUSTARD. I07 



The male is much larger than the female ; his head and neck 

 are slate-grey, and on his chin are tufts of long whitish bristles ; 

 his upper parts are yellowish barred with black, but with the 

 coverts mostly white. The breast is brown and barred, the rest 

 of the under parts dead white. The female has no bristles and 

 her breast is white. The young resemble her, but there are 

 bhck bars on the coverts. The bill is slate, dark at the tip ; 

 the legs are brown and the irides dark brown. Male : Length, 

 44 ins. Wing, 24 ins. Tarsus, 6 ins. Female : Length, 30 ins. 

 Wing, 19 ins. Tarsus, 575 ins. 



Little Bustard. Otis tetrax Linn. 



A more southern species than the last, the Little Bustard 

 (Plate 39) is a rare winter visitor to England, notably to the east 

 coast, and is very occasional in Scotland and Ireland. Its 

 range extends from central and southern Europe to western 

 Asia and northern Africa, and it is a more regular migrant than 

 its larger relative. On a few occasions birds, even males in 

 breeding dress, have been noticed in spring, but it is not known 

 to have nested in Britain. 



In winter dress, in which it usually appears in England, the 

 Little Bustard is a yellowish-brown bird, delicately vermiculated, 

 barred and streaked with black, and with white under parts. 

 It looks like a game-bird, and has many game-bird habits. It 

 rises on whirring wings, and, to quote Mr. Chapman, " cackles 

 like a cock-grouse." It runs like a Partridge, and when flushed 

 rises high, eluding the sportsman ; flocks will wheel at a great 

 height with plover-like evolutions. Col. Verner says that on 

 the wing it looks even whiter than the Great Bustard. The 

 rapidly moving wings make a loud swishing sound, from which, 

 Col. Verner suggests, the Spanish name Sison^ pronounced 

 *' see-sone," is derived. In the breeding season the cock, as he 

 struts with head drawn back against his uplifted and expanded 



