BUSTARD 65 
in 1740, though its existence was hinted by Sir Thomas Browne 
sixty years before, if not by the Emperor Frederick II, has been 
found wanting in examples that, from the exhibition of all the 
outward marks of virility, were believed to be thoroughly 
mature ; and as to its function and mode of development judgment 
had best be suspended, with the understanding that the old supposi- 
tion of its serving as a receptacle whence the bird might supply itself 
or its companions with water in dry places must be deemed to be 
wholly untenable. The structure of this pouch—the existence 
of which in some examples has been well established—is, how- 
ever, variable ; and though there is reason to believe that in one 
form or another it is common in the breeding-season to several 
species of the Family Ofididx, it would seem to be as inconstant 
in its occurrence as in its capacity. As might be expected, this 
remarkable feature has attracted a good deal of attention (Journ. 
fiir Ormth. 1861, p. 153; 1862, p. 135; Ibis, 1862, p. 107; 1865, 
p- 143; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1865, p. 747 ; 1868, p. 471; 1869, p. 140; 
1874, p. 471), and the researches of Garrod, the latest investi- 
gator of the matter, shew that in an example of the Australian 
Bustard, Otis australis, examined by him there was, instead of a 
pouch or sack, simply a highly dilated cesophagus—the distention 
of which, at the bird’s will, produced much the same appearance 
and effect as that of the undoubted sack found at times in the 
0. tarda. 
The distribution of the Bustards is confined to the Old World 
—the bird so-called in the Fur-Countries of North America, and 
thus giving its name to a lake, river, and cape, being the Canada 
Goosk, Bernicla canadensis. In the Palearctic area we have 
the 0. tarda already mentioned, extending from Spain to Mesopo- 
tamia at least, and from Scania to Morocco, as well as a smaller 
species, O. tetraz, which often occurs as a straggler in, but was 
never an inhabitant of, the British Islands. ‘Two species, known 
indifferently by the name of Houbara (derived from the Arabic), 
frequent the more southern portions of the area. One of them, 0. 
houbara, inhabits Mauritania and even some of the Canary Islands, 
while the other, 0. macqueeni, though having the more eastern range 
and reaching India, has several times occurred in North-western 
Europe, and once even in England. In the east of Siberia the place 
of O. tarda is taken by the nearly-allied, but apparently distinct, 
0. dybovskii, which would seem to occur also in Northern China, 
Africa is the chief stronghold of the Family, nearly a score of well- 
marked species being peculiar to that continent, all of which have 
been by later systematists separated from the genus Ofis. India, 
too, has three peculiar species, the smaller of which are there 
known as Floricans, and, like some of their African and one if not 
both of their European cousins, are remarkable for the ornamental 
5 
