INTRODUCTION. 47 
After this short excursion amongst Birds of different distant 
lands we may return to more familiar forms. First of these 
may be mentioned a Bird which was common enough in England 
a hundred years ago, though it is now but a rare visitant. This 
is the Bustard (Otis tarda, fig. 48),a large stout Bird, which may 
be taken as a type and representative of a group of six-and-twenty 
species which are entirely confined to the Eastern Hemisphere, 
Fig. 46. 

The Horned Screamer (Palamedea cornuta). 
including Australia, though there are none in Madagascar or 
the Malay Archipelago. Some Bustards seem to have lingered 
in England till 1845, although they are said to have deserted 
their accustomed haunts on Salisbury Plain about 1810. They, 
however, occasionally visit us, and in the winter of 1870- 
1871 no less than twelve were seen—three on Salisbury Plain 
once more, and seven in North Middlesex. The Bustard is a 
