2222 



THE BUSTARDS, THICKNEES, AND CRANES 



with a regular flap of the wings, and much faster than they appear to go. I can- 

 not imagine greyhounds being able to catch bustards, though there seems to be 

 good authority for believing they did." A full-grown male bustard will weigh 

 from twenty-six to thirty pounds, or even rather more. 



Far inferior in size to its larger relative, the little bustard (O. 

 tetrax} differs by the absence of the moustache in the male, and' dis- 

 plays a greater diversity between the plumage of the two sexes, as well as a sea- 

 sonal variation in that of the male. In the summer plumage, the latter sex, as rep- 

 resented in our illustration, has the general color of the upper plumage buffish brown. 



Little Bustard 



BUSTARD IN BREEDING PLUMAGE. 

 (One-fifth natural size.) 



vermiculated with black, and two black and two white gorgets on the lower neck 

 and breast. On the other hand, the female (which is equal in size to her partner) 

 at all seasons, and the male in winter have the head and upper parts streaked and 

 blotched with black, and no black gorgets on the breast. In length these birds 

 measure only about seventeen inches. 



The little bustard, which is but a rare and generally a winter visitor to Britain, 

 is widely spread in suitable localities over Europe and Central Asia, ranging in 

 winter to the trans- Indus districts of India and to Northern Africa. From Africa 

 these birds migrate to their northern breeding haunts in vast flocks during April, 



