284 BIRDS OF TUNISIA 



small flocks of another bird, which I thought I recognised as the 

 Golden Plover, but of this I am by no means sure. So much struck 

 was I by the strange sight which this enormous passage presented, 

 that I stayed the greater part of the day to watch it ; and when at 

 last I left, the almost inconceivable flood of winged creatures was 

 still rolling on over the steppe from west to east in undiminished 

 numbers. . . . Judging by what I killed, I should say the birds 

 were only just starting from their summer haunts in the Crimea and 

 the Caucasus for their winter quarters in the east. Had it not been 

 so, they would hardly have been so deliciously plump as we found 

 them." 



The flesh of the Lesser Bustard is certainly excellent eating, and 

 at certain seasons the " Poule de Carthage " forms an important item 

 in the " menu " of the hotels at Tunis and other towns in the 

 neighbourhood, where the species is common. Its food consists 

 chiefly of grain, seeds, and the tender shoots of certain plants, varied 

 by insects, worms and snails. It walks and runs with ease, and its 

 flight is swift and powerful. "Wlien rising it claps its wings together 

 most audibly, making a peculiar rattling noise. During the nesting- 

 season the male utters a harsh cry, but the species is, on the whole, 

 a silent one. It nests in April and May among " Haifa "-grass, or 

 other herbage, depositing its eggs, usually three in number, in a 

 depression in the ground. The eggs are generally of a glossy green, 

 or olive-green colour, faintly marked or clouded with pale brown, but 

 I have some eggs in my collection of a greenish-brown colour. Their 

 average measurements are 50 X 40 mm. 



OTIS UNDULATA (Jacquin). 

 HOUBARA BUSTARD. 



Psophia undulata, Jacq. Beylr. Gesch. Vog. p. 24, pi. 9 (1784). 

 Otis undulata, Dresser, Birds of Europe, vii, p. 391, pi. 510 (1876). 

 Otis houbara, MaUicrbe, Faune Orn. de I'AUj. p. 29 (1855) ; Koeniy, 



J.f. 0. 1893, p. 81; Whitaker, Ibis, 1898, p. 126. 

 Houbara undulata, Loche, Expl. Sci. AUj. Ois. ii, p. 254 (1867) ; Sliarpc, 



Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xxiii, p. 320. 

 Houbara houbara, Erlaiiger, J. /. 0. 1900, p. 48. 



