586 BRITISH BIRDS. 
Tchernavoda. As the train passed she strutted slowly along as if on tiptoe, 
with neck upstretched and head turning round, to follow the train, but she 
never took wing. 
The eggs of the Great Bustard are generally only two in number, but 
sometimes three are laid. They vary from olive-green to pale buff and 
olive-brown in ground-colour, and are spotted and blotched with reddish 
brown, and with numerous underlying markings of greyish pink. The 
markings are generally obscurely defined, and somewhat evenly distributed 
over the entire surface. On some eggs the blotches are very irregular, and 
are intermingled with small rich dark brown streaks and scratches. The 
surface is slightly rough, full of small pores, and possesses a little gloss, 
but some specimens are much smoother than others. They vary in length 
from 3°2 to 2°7 inch, and in breadth from 2-4 to 2°15 inch. They differ 
considerably in shape, some being elongated at both ends, whilst others are 
nearly round. 
The male Great Bustard is a very handsome bird, as richly marked as a 
Ptarmigan and as large as a Turkey. The general colour of the upper 
parts is chestnut-buff, transversely barred with black. The quills and 
primary-coverts are nearly black, with white bases. The lesser wing-coverts 
and several of the centre tail-feathers are coloured lke the back, but many 
of the outer tail-feathers are white, with a broad transverse subterminal 
black band. The larger wing-coverts, the upper neck, and the underparts 
below the lower neck, which is chestnut-buff, are white. The head and a 
long moustachial tuft on each side are pale slate-grey. Bill slate-grey, 
darker at the tip; legs, feet, and claws brown; irides dark hazel. The 
female is a smaller bird, about half the weight of the male, from which it 
differs chiefly in having no moustachial plumes and no chestnut on the 
lower throat. Young in first plumage of both sexes resemble adult females, 
but have the white wing-coverts broadly barred with black, and three 
_ instead of one black band across all the outer tail-feathers ; the white both 
of the upper and underparts is also suffused with chestnut and mottled 
with grey. Many of the primaries are mottled with white, and all are 
tipped with white, and some of the feathers of the crown are coloured like 
the back. It is supposed that this plumage is retained until the second 
autumn, when an intermediate plumage is acquired, the fully adult plumage 
not being assumed until the third autumn. It is probable that some of 
the feathers of the head and neck, especially the moustachial plumes, are 
moulted in the spring. 
