EUROPEAN GREAT BUSTARD 143 



but it is generally spoken well of by European ornithologists. 

 In Baluchistan, where these birds are locally very common, the 

 native name is Charaz. 



European Great Bustard. 



Otis tarda. Deo-dagh, Chitral. 



Up to date, only four specimens of this great bird have been 

 obtained in Indian limits, all of them hens, and the first as long 

 ago as 1870 ; in size it about equals the great Indian bustard, 

 sex for sex, but will be easily distinguishable, if met with, on the 

 ground by the absence of the dark cap, head and neck being 

 uniform light grey, and in flight by the white wings, which have 

 only the quills black; the birds keep more together than the large 

 Indian species. Close at hand the coarse barring of black on buff 

 of the upper parts is very different from the finely pencilled dull 

 brown of the great Indian bustard, and the big male, as large as 

 a swan, has in the breeding season long bristly moustaches, but 

 these disappear for the winter, at which season or in spring all 

 Indian specimens have been taken. The bill of this species, like 

 that of the little bustard, being much shorter and more fowl-like 

 than the pigeon-like bill of our Indian well-known kinds, the 

 skull alone would be sufficient evidence of the capture of one. 



The first Indian specimen, one of a flock, was got at Mardan, 

 and forty years later two more were killed in the same locality, 

 the weather being very cold. In 1911 two birds occurred, one 

 at Jacobabad in January and one at Chitral in March ; all these 

 unfortunate stragglers w^ere young birds and, as above remarked, 

 hens. Birds of this sex are about as big as a grey goose, and 

 indeed there is something goose-like about this species, in its 

 sturdy build, social habits, and fondness for vegetable food ; it 

 devours the leaves, ears and seed of a great variety of plants, and, 

 though a great eater, is somewhat of an epicure. Eape is a 

 favourite plant with it, and in some parts of the continent it is 

 classed as a destructive bird. However, it does partake also of 

 insects, worms, and other small animals, and the young are quite 

 insectivorous. 



The display of this magnificent game bird is a wonderful 



