2:62 GRUIFORMES CHAP. 
brown, the head is blue-grey, with long white bristles at the base 
of the mandible, the lower surface is white, relieved in the male by 
a tawny gorget for a short time during the breeding season. The 
primaries are black, most of the secondaries and wing-coverts 
white. Some other Bustards seem to have a similar vernal change 
of plumage. The female is smaller and has no bristles. 0. tetra, 
the Little Bustard, a strageler to our shores, is somewhat lke 
the last species in colour, but has the cheeks and throat grey, 
bordered by a white line, and below this comes a broad black collar 
divided in front by a median white band in the nesting time. 
The female is brown and black, with white breast and no collar. 
The remaining members of the Family vary considerably in 
pattern of colour, being spotted, streaked, or vermiculated above, and 
being occasionally very dark ; the head and the lower parts, more- 
over, are not uncommonly quite black, or the latter may be greyish- 
blue, as in 7rachelotis coerulescens. The bill and feet are usually 
yellow, more seldom greyish or dusky. Females and young exhibit 
a more uniform mixture of brown, black, and buff, while rufous 
bases to the feathers are characteristic of the group. 
Bustards are Old World birds, reaching eastwards to Aus- 
tralia, where Lupodotis australis is called the “Native Turkey.” 
LE. edwards: inhabits the plains of India, £. arabs extends from 
Arabia to North Africa, and Z. kori from the East to the South 
of that continent. Ofis ranges over South and Central Europe, 
and thence to North Africa, inhabiting also Mid-Asia to North- 
West India, the Yangtze-Kiang River and Japan.  Houbara 
undulata, the African Ruffed Bustard, reaches from the Canaries, 
through the Mediterranean basin to about Armenia; its congener 
HT. macqueent, which strays westward to Britain, being resident 
in Persia, North India and Central Asia. Houbaropsis bengalensis 
and Sypheotis aurita are the Florican and Lesser Florican of 
India; Lophotis, Compsotis, Heterotetrax, Neotis, Lissotis, and 
Trachelotis inhabit the Ethiopian Region. The members of the 
Family are to some extent migratory, and perhaps the Great 
Bustard was partly so of old in Britain. 
The members of this Family flock in winter, and occasionally 
form small parties at other seasons, the males being very possibly 
polygamous, though the fact is hardly proved. Typically inland 
birds, they haunt dry grassy and sandy plains, or cultivated ground 
1 Mr. Rothschild has separated the Canary Island race as H. fuerteventurae. 
