214 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. x. 



(2) Otis tetrax orientalis Hart. 



Eastern Little Bustard. 



Otis tetrax orientalis Hartert, Nov. Zool., 1916, p. .339 (Ex A. E. 

 Brehm, nomen nudum ! Terra typica : Sarepta). 



Upperside, especially on the upper wing-coverts, darker, 

 less sandy, less reddish, markings as a rule coarser and 

 blacker. Wings ^ 250-258, ? 250-263 mm. 



Habitat : West Siberia, eastAvards to Kainsk in the 

 government of Tomsk, Saissan-Nor, Transcaspia, East 

 Turkestan, Afghanistan, south Russian Steppes, north 

 to the governments of Kieff, Poltawa and Podolsk, and 

 perhaps Saratow, Samara and Orenburg, Greece, Rumania, 

 the valley of the Danube to Austria, probably also Poland 

 and East Prussia, in small numbers in the Mark Bran- 

 denburg ; once breeding in West Prussia, at times 

 (certainly between 1870 and 1900) in Thuringia. To 

 this subspecies belong also the birds which nest in Puglie 

 and Capitanata (near Foggia) in south Italy, probably 

 also those from Sicily and Sardinia. Northern birds of 

 this race are migratory, wintering in Mesopotamia, Syria, 

 north-west India, Asia Minor, Cyprus, Egypt. Occa- 

 sional stragglers have been observed in Scandinavia, the 

 Russian Baltic Provinces, Ingermannland, Finland, Den- 

 mark, eastern Grermany to Westfalia. Saxony, Heligo- 

 land. 



(Cf. Nov. Zool., 1916, pp. 337-339, where, however, by 

 some unfortunate mistake, the measurements are reversed, 

 the eastern subspecies being the larger, the western the 

 smaller one !) 



It would be most interesting to compare carefully all 

 British killed specimens, in order to decide to which of 

 the two forms they belong. 



