Jan. 18, 1853.] Linnean Society. 207 



December 21. 



R. Brown, Esq., President, in the Chair. 



Read, " The Vegetation of the District surrounding Lake Torrens, 

 sketched by Dr. Ferdinand Miiller of Adelaide," in a Letter to 

 R. Kippist, Esq., Libr. L.S,, translated and comraunicated by Mr. 

 Kippist. 



January 18, 1853. 



R. Brown, Esq., President, in the Chair. 



The Rev. Churchill Babington, M.A., and Joshua Clarke, Esq., 

 were elected Fellows of the Society. 



Read a paper *' On the Habits and Structure of the Great Bustard 

 (Otis tarda, L.)." By William Yarrell, Esq., V.P. and Treas. L.S. 

 Tlie particulars relating to the habits of the Bustard are derived 

 from the communications of several friends, who have had oppor- 

 tunities of observing it both in England and elsewhere. The first 

 notice is from C. A. Nicholson, Esq., of Balrath Kells, in the county 

 of Meath, and furnishes remarks on the habits of the bird as ob- 

 served by him in the neighbourhood of Seville, where it appears to be 

 extremely abundant, the males beginning to arrive in the cultivated 

 country at the beginning of February in flocks varying (according to 

 Mr. Nicholson's observations) from seven to fifty-three ; the old 

 birds always associating together, and those of a year old, which are 

 much smaller, never mixing with them : the young birds have neither 

 beard nor pouch. The females do not arrive till the beginning of 

 April, and come singly or at most in pairs ; the flocks of males then 

 break up and are met with in parties of three or four, or even singly, 

 spreading their tails on a fine day like Turkey-cocks, drooping their 

 wings and expanding their pouches. The sexes appear to live quite 

 separate. In May the cocks entirely disappear from the cultivated 

 lands, retiring to the extensive grass marshes on the banks of the 

 Guadalquivir, and leaving the hens behind them. The young are 

 hatched in the corn-plains about Seville, and are able to take care of 

 themselves when the com is cut in July, after which the young birds 

 and hens follow the cocks to the marshes. The birds are very difli- 

 cult to shoot : the heaviest shot by Mr. Nicholson weighed 28 pounds ; 



