OTIS TETRAX ORIENTALIS 159 



mens: Length 17 to 19 inches, expanse 33 5 to 8G, wing 9'5 to lO'l, 

 tail 4 to 5, tarsus 2'2 to 2'66, bill from gape 1'5 to 1'6. Weight 1'5 to 

 2 lbs." 



Eeduced to millimetres the wings are from 241 to 256. Hartert 

 gives the wings of the eastern form as being, males 236 to 252 mm., 

 and the females 245 to 247, measurements considerably smaller than 

 those of Hume. 



Sharpe notes some curious measurements in the ' Catalogue ' ; he 

 gives the culmen of the male as 1'5 inches and that of the female 11, 

 Ijut the wing of the male as averaging 9'4 inches whilst that of the 

 female is 97. 



Distribution. — Hume, as usual, gives a good and detailed account of 

 the habitat of our Indian race of Otis tetrax, both in reference to its 

 whole range and its occurrence within Indian limits. He writes : — 



" The Butterfly Houbara, as Indian sportsmen in the North-West 

 have not inappropriately designated the Little Bustard of Europe, is 

 a regular and tolerably abundant winter visitant to the northern 

 portions of the Trans-Indus Punjab. 



Cis-Iudus, they can only be considered rare and occasional 

 stragglers. In December, 1878, Colonel Macleod, E.A., shot a fine 

 male of this species near Gurdaspur, and about the same time Mr. 0. 

 Greig shot a female at Balawala on the bank above the Ganges 

 Kadar in the Saharanpur district, and others must doubtless have 

 occurred in the submontane tracts of the Punjab and North-Western 

 Provinces ; these are, I believe, the only instances on record of their 

 being brought to bag. 



Out of India, the Little Bustard is common in suitable localities 

 in Southern" [Eastern] "Europe, . . . adjoining the basin of the 

 Mediterranean. It straggles to Northern Europe, even to the British 

 Isles and Sweden. It occurs, and very numerously in some places, 

 in Syria, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Northern Persia, Kabul and 

 Northern Beluchistan, and throughout the tract of country lying 

 between the Caspian and Western Yarkand, whence we have speci- 

 mens from Yangihissar, Kashgar and other places in the plains 

 between these and Sanju. 



" It does not appear to go north across the Tian Shan, or 

 eastwards into Mongolia or China ; neither Eadde, Prjevalski nor 

 David include it in their lists." 



A remarkable extension of this bird's range is made by records 

 of three birds obtained in Kashmir. The first of these refers to one 



