Bustards. 397 



where the female can He well concealed. 

 She usually lays two eggs. The eggs 

 vary much in shape, but the majority are 

 regular ovals. The ground-colour is deep 

 ohve-brown, olive-green or buff, and the 

 egg is covered with spots and blotches of 

 brown and numerous underlying markings 

 of grey or pale purple. In length the 

 eggs vary from 27 to 3*2, and in breadth 

 from 2'2 to 2*4. They have very little 

 gloss. 



The male Bustard has the head and 

 the greater part of the neck grey. The 

 low^er part of the hindneck, the whole 

 upper plumage, the middle tail-feathers, 

 and a great part of the wing-coverts, are 

 cross-barred with black and chestnut, the 

 remaining coverts being greyish white. 

 The first ten quills of the wing are blackish ; 

 the next partly or wholly white. The 

 lateral tail-feathers are white with a dark 

 bar near the tip and with some rufous in 

 front of the bar, the amount of rufous 

 increasing as the feathers approach the 

 middle of the tail. The throat, the whis- 

 kers and the foreneck are pale grey. 

 Across the breast there is a band of 

 chestnut marked with black. The lower 

 plumage is white. 



The female resembles the male, but is 



