242 A HANDBOOK OF EUROPEAN BIRDS. 
eo 
Order LIMICOLZ. 
Family OTIDZ. 
Genus OTIS. 
GREAT BUSTARD.% 
Otis tarda Linn. 
Adult Male: Head slaty-grey ; a long moustachial-tuft 
on either side springing from base of lower mandible; throat 
and upper part of neck white; lower neck chestnut-buff; on 
centre of crown a longitudinal black streak ; dack, scapulars, 
lesser wing-coverts, rump and tail-coverts ye/lowish or reddish- 
buff, conspicuously barred and otherwise marked with black ; 
greater wing-coverts and some of secondaries grey ; primaries 
brownish with white bases; under parts below chest white ; 
bill slaty-grey, darker at tip; legs and feet brown ; irides dark 
brown. Length about 45 inches; culmen 2°5 ; wing 2475 to 
204 tan nt. -tarsus.6 2, 
Adult Female: Much smaller than the male, otherwise 
very similar in general appearance, but lacks the long feathers 
at side of head, and the chestnut-buff collar. 
Young in first plumage: “Of both sexes resemble 
adult female, but have the white wing-coverts broadly barred 
with black, and three instead of one black band across all the 
outer tail-feathers ; the white both of the upper and under parts 
is also suffused with chestnut, and mottled with grey. Many of 
the primaries are mottled with white, and all are tipped with 
white, and some of the feathers of the crown are coloured like 
the back” (Seebohm). , 
Distribution: Found in Central and Southern Europe, 
rarely in Northern Africa, and eastward across Central Asia 
to China and Japan. Used to breed abundantly in Great 
Britain, Denmark, and Southern Sweden. 
Habitat: Secluded grassy plains ; open, cultivated country. 
