BUSTARD 65 



in 1740, though its existence was hinted by Sir Thomas Browne 

 sixty years before, if not by the Emperor Frederick II, has been 

 found wanting in examples that, from the exhibition of all the 

 outward marks of virility, were believed to be thoroughly 

 mature ; and as to its function and mode of development judgment 

 had best be suspended, with the understanding that the old supjDOsi- 

 tion of its serving as a receptacle whence the bird might supply itself 

 or its companions with water in dry places must be deemed to be 

 wholly untenable. The structure of this pouch — the existence 

 of which in some examples has been well established — is, how- 

 ever, variable ; and though there is reason to believe that in one 

 form or another it is common in the breeding-season to several 

 species of the Family Otididm, it would seem to be as inconstant 

 in its occurrence as in its capacity. As might be expected, this 

 remarkable feature has attracted a good deal of attention [Journ. 

 fur Ornith. 1861, p. 153; 1862, p. 135; Ibis, 1862, p. 107; 1865, 

 p. 143 ; Froc. Zool. Soc. 1865, p. 747 ; 1868, p. 471 ; 1869, p. 140 ; 

 1874, p. 471), and the researches of Garrod, the latest investi- 

 gator of the matter, shew that in an example of the Australian 

 Bustard, Otis australis, examined by him there was, instead of a 

 pouch or sack, simply a highly dilated oesophagus — the distention 

 of which, at the bird's will, produced much the same appearance 

 and effect as that of the undoubted sack found at times in the 

 0. tarda. 



The distribution of the Bustards is confined to the Old World 

 — the bird so-called in the Fur-Countries of North America, and 

 thus giving its name to a lake, river, and cape, being the Canada 

 Goose, Bernida canadensis. In the Pala^arctic area we have 

 the 0. tarda already mentioned, extending from Spain to Mesopo- 

 tamia at least, and from Scania to Morocco, as well as a smaller 

 species, 0. tetrax, Avhich often occurs as a straggler in, but was 

 never an inhabitant of, the British Islands. Two species, known 

 indifferently by the name of Houbara (derived from the Arabic), 

 frequent the more southern portions of the area. One of them, 0. 

 Jioubara, inhabits Mauritania and even some of the Canary Islands, 

 while the other, 0. macqiieeni, though having the more eastern range 

 and reaching India, has several times occurred in North-western 

 Europe, and once even in England. In the east of Siberia the place 

 of 0. tarda is taken by the nearly-allied, but apparently distinct, 

 0. dyhovskii, which would seem to occur also in Northern China. 

 Africa is the chief stronghold of the Family, nearly a score of well- 

 marked species being peculiar to that continent, all of which have 

 been by later systematists separated from the genus Otis. India, 

 too, has three peculiar species, the smaller of which are there 

 known as Floricans, and, like some of their African and one if not 

 both of their European cousins, are remarkable for the ornamental 



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