LITTLE BUSTARD. 47 
again passed into Mr. Bartlett’s possession. The sex of 
this specimen was not ascertained, but like the rest it 
is of course in winter plumage. The river Thet being 
the boundary between the two counties, this bird was in 
point of fact killed in Suffolk, but having wandered 
from place to place before its capture, it certainly 
deserves notice in the present work. 
After recording such a series of local specimens, one 
may safely class the little bustard amongst those rarer 
migrants, which can be confidently looked for from time 
to time, and, from the regularity of its appearance 
during certain months of the year only, it may be 
reckoned as an occasional winter visitant. Whether 
occurring, also, as early as September or as late as 
March, the severity of the season seems, in most cases, 
to have accounted for the appearance of this species, 
driven at the same time by contrary winds thus far 
to the westward of its ordinary course. Whether males 
or females actually predominate it is impossible to 
determine, since only in three instances have we the 
actual test of dissection, viz., in the Wisbech, Mr. 
Gurney’s, and my own specimen. But on comparing 
my male bird with Mr. Gurney’s female, both in full 
winter plumage, I find the only perceptible difference is 
in the depth of colouring generally. In the hen bird, all 
the darker markings are more defined, the margins to the 
feathers on the throat and breast, the bars on the tail, 
and the spots on the Hanks, being broader and deeper in 
tint, than in my own specimen.* At the same time, 
there is far less difference between my bird and the 
supposed females in the Norwich museum (the Trunch 
* T have lately examined two specimens of the little bustard, 
in the University Museum at Cambridge, both marked females, 
and in winter plumage, one of which is identical in colour and 
markings with my own, and presents, I imagine, the ordinary 
plumage of the young male in its first autumn. 
