OTIDID^. 611 



are more wary, but even then can often be approached within one 

 hundred yards. If there is any bushy or uneven ground to favor 

 the gunner, the task is comparatively easy. Occasionally they 

 may be flushed in long grass, or Dhal fields, or even Wheat fields, 

 and an easy shot obtained ; and I once brought down two birds, 

 right and left, in a wheat-field near Saugor. 



Many sportsmen kill it with the rifle, and one sportsman on 

 the Bombay side is known to have killed above one thousand 

 Bustards with his rifle; chiefly, I believe, in the Deccan and 

 Southern Mahratta country. A young Bustard, or a full grown 

 lien bird are very excellent eating ; the flesh is dark, and very 

 highly flavored ; but in an adult cock it is rather coarse. 



A large Bustard has been seen in various parts of China which 

 is perhaps this species, or some closely allied one, may-be, Otis 

 lucionensis. A very closely allied species, 0. australis, Gray, occurs 

 in Australia, where known, to some of the Colonists as the Wild 

 Turkey. Other species are Euj). nuha, Riipp ; E. ludwigi, Riipp ; 

 E. caffra, Licht. {Stanleyi, Gray) ; E. Denhami^ Children; E' 

 arabs, L. {abijssinica, Gray) ; and E. Jcori, Burchell. 



The European Bustard, O. tarda, Linnaeus, belongs to restricted 

 Otis. It has a long white moustachial-tuft. The short limbs, short 

 bill, and general form give it quite a different aspect to that of the 

 Indian Bustard, and I can understand its being called a Turkey. It 

 is found throughout Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and used to 

 be occasionally captured in England; audits peculiar attitudes 

 during the courting season have been ably illustrated by Wolf 

 in his Zoological Sketches. 



Gen, HoUBARA, Bonaparte. 



Syn. CJila^nydotis, Lesson. 



Char. — Legs rather short ; neck of the male furnished with a 

 ruff, and occasionally crested; bill rather lengthened, much 

 depressed at the base. 



The ruffed Bustards are birds of moderate size, frequenting the 

 open sandy deserts, the type of which is Otis houhara of Gmelin, 



