macqueen's bustard. 223 



on 17th September in the Pamir range, and it appears to be 

 resident between the Caspian and Yarkand, ranging as far as 

 the Altai range to the north-east, and perhaps to Mongolia, 

 as both Prjevalski and the Abbe David observed a small 

 species of Bustard, which they were unable to procure. 

 Throughout Persia it is common down to the Gulf, on some 

 of the islands of which it is supposed to have bred ; and the 

 highlands of Baluchistan are also believed to be its breed- 

 ing-grounds. In the cold season it straggles as far as the 

 Jumna, but it is only to be found in any numbers in the 

 sandy, semi-desert country of Sind, especially in the Sirsa 

 and Kurachee districts, in the latter of which about fifty 

 have been known to fall to one gun in a single day. It ap- 

 pears in September, and leaves again in March or April.* 

 To the west of Persia it becomes difficult to trace the range 

 of this species, for De Filippi, who brought home no skins, 

 affirms that it is the African form which occurs in Armenia, 

 nor did Canon Tristram bring back specimens of the Ruffed 

 Bustard which he observed in Palestine. 



Mr. Hume states that he has never remarked any pre- 

 ponderance of females over males. Macqueen's Bustard 

 frequents the fields which yield the oil- seeds of commerce, 

 and feeds largely on the small fruits of the Ber, the berries 

 of the Grevia, and the young shoots of the lemon-grass : 

 occasionally picking up a grasshopper or a beetle. The 

 specimen killed in Lincolnshire had its craw filled with 

 caterpillars of the Common Yellow Underwing Moth, small 

 shelled snails, beetles, &c. 



An egg of this species obtained by the collector of Herr 

 Tancre, in the Altai range — presumably on the elevated 

 plains — is in the collection of Mr. H. Seebohm, and is 

 figured in his ' History of British Birds, with Coloured 

 Illustrations of their Eggs,' Pt. II. pi. 21. It is of a 

 somewhat olivaceous-brown colour, with darker blotches, 

 and measures 2*6 by 1*85 in. 



The male has the forehead, sides of the head, upper part of 

 the back of the neck, pale buff, pencilled with black ; crest 



* Hume and Marshall, 'Game Birds of India,' i, pp. 17-21. 



