OTIS TARDA. 561 



The Great Bustard. 



Otis Tarda. {Linn.) 



" Care will the heavier sit 

 When it perceives it is but faintly borne ; 

 While snarling horrow hath less power to bite 

 The man that mocks at it and sets it light." — Shakespeare. 



This is the largest European bird — the male weighing thirty 

 lbs. ; female much less ; at one time plentiful in England and the 

 south of Scotland. But drainage and the plough has made it 

 now a very rare British bird, its last resort in England being the 

 fens of Lincolnshire, and in Scotland the low-lying tract in 

 Morayshire between Elgin and the sea. It is common in the 

 south and east of Europe, and abounds in the east plains and 

 steppes of Tartary. The nest is merely a hollow amongst grass 

 or corn ; eggs, two, 3^ by 2J inches — larger than a turkey's — 

 yellowish-green, faintly blotched with purple. They pair in 

 April. Some authors say they are polygamous, others when 

 incubation begins, the males desert the females. They are laid 

 in May. The hen sits a month. When pairing, the male struts 

 and spreads his broad, round tail like a turkey cock. ' But on 

 June 14th this year (1894) on the sand in the Step Lake, at my 

 boat-breakwater, I saw a male pied wagtail ruffling his feathers, 

 spreading his tail, proudly erecting his head, and strutting the 

 same as an amorous bustard or pouter pigeon — not to speak of 

 the " la-di-da" dandy of the drawing-room or the happy-go- 

 lucky ploughman of the Lammas Market. Its general colour is 

 pale chestnut on the upper part, beautifully varied with black ; 

 wing coverts, and under parts white ; tail, short, broad, and 

 rounded, tipped with white. A tuft or plume of long wiry 

 feathers, about seven inches long, like moustaches, falls down 

 the sides of the neck of the male. The flesh was held in high 

 estimation, which, no doubt, helped its extirpation in Britain. 

 Length of the male, about four feet; the female, thirty-five 

 inches ; iris, reddish-brown. 



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