LITTLE BUSTARD 



49 



but the fact that hens are certainly more numerous than the cocks 

 renders it practically certain that this is very generally the case, although 

 there may be exceptions. The food of the bustard is chiefly of a 

 vegetable nature, green corn being, in its season, a special favourite ; 

 but this diet is varied with worms, beetles, lizards, etc. The nest, 

 which may be placed either on the open down or heath, or among 

 growing corn, is little more than a slight hollow scratched or trampled 

 in the ground. In this are laid the two, or occasionally three, eggs, 

 which measure about 3 inches in length by 2 in breadth, and vary 

 in colour from olive-green to olive-brown or buff with spots and blotches 

 of reddish brown and grey. In their coarse structure and numerous 

 pores they resemble crane's eggs. The only British-laid bustard's egg 

 in the British Museum is one from Wiltshire, formerly in the possession 

 of the celebrated ornithologist, Colonel Montagu. 



Little Bustard 

 (Otis tetrax). 



The little bustard, which is the second and only 

 other representative 



of the type genus of 

 the family, is sometimes referred to as 

 a genus by itself, under the name of 

 Tetrax campestris, or Tetrax tetrax, 

 owing to the circumstance that the cock 

 has no bristle-like feathers on the sides 

 of the head, but, on the other hand, the 

 nape of the neck is ornamented with a 

 crest of long feathers in the breeding- 

 season. It is a much smaller bird than 

 the last, measuring only 1 7 inches in 

 length. In breeding-plumage the cock 

 has the lower part of the neck black, 

 with two broad white collars, of which 

 the upper one forms a V-shaped loop. 

 This and its small size are amply 

 sufficient to distinguish the species, 

 which is, however, further characterised 

 by the plumage of the upper-parts being 

 pale chestnut -brown, variegated with 

 fine irregular black lines, with the wing- 

 coverts and bases of the primary quills 

 white, and the inner quills mingled black 

 and white. In winter, on the other hand, the bird assumes a much 



LITTLE r;USTAKIJ>. 



