OTIS UNDULATA 285 



Description. — Adult male, spring, from Kairouan, Central Tunisia. 



Crown sandy-brown, barred with black, and ornamented with a crest 

 of white feathers, some of which are tinged with sand-brown at the tip ; 

 chin white ; lores, superciliary stripes, and the sides of the head and neck 

 greyish-white ; a conspicuous tuft of long black feathers on each side of the 

 lower neck, with a similar tuft of wliite feathers adjoining it ; back and 

 upperparts generally rufescent-buff, barred and pencilled with black ; upper 

 wing-coverts rather greyer ; outer quills white at the base and dark on the 

 terminal portion ; inner quills black, slightly tipped with white ; tail pale 

 rufous, slightly pencilled with l)lack, and broadly barred with four bluish 

 bands ; under parts below the neck white. 



Iris yellow ; bill brown ; feet dusky gi'ey. 



Total length 30 inches, wing 15, culraen 1-50, tarsus 4. 



Adult female is similar to the male, but has the crest and neck-ruff less 

 developed, and is rather smaller. 



This Bustard, the Houbara, as it is usually called, is not uncommon 

 in Central and Southern Tunisia, and has been met with occasionally, 

 thougli rarely, in the north of the Regency. Its true home, hovi'ever, 

 is undoubtedly south of the Atlas, where vast tracts of semi-desert 

 country and stony plains covered with patches of " Haifa "-gi'ass 

 and other scrub-vegetation extend southwards to the great Sahara 

 desert. 



I have frequently observed the species on the plains between 

 Feriana and Gafsa, and on those lying to the west and south of the 

 latter town. 



In Algeria the Houbara is not uncommon south of the Atlas in 

 districts corresponding to those where it is found in Tunisia. It also 

 occurs in Marocco, and Colonel Irby (Orn. Strs. Gib., p. 153) states 

 that he had seen a specimen which liad been obtained near Tangier. 

 On the islands of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, two of the Canary 

 group, this, or a closely allied species of Bustard, is to be found, 

 which has been distinguished under the name of Otis houhara 

 fuerteventura (Eothsch. and Hart.). 



North of the Mediterranean the Houbara is of merely accidental 

 occurrence, but it inhabits North-east Africa, and is to be found 

 as far east as Armenia. Still further eastward it is replaced by 

 0. macqueenii, an allied but distinct species. 



In its habits the present species resembles other Bustards, and 

 is one of the most shy and wary of birds, rarely allowing itself to be 



