OF THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 99 



Family OTIDID^E. The Bustards. 



The birds in the present family are characterised by having the nostrils 

 holorhinal, and the dorsal vertebrae heteroccelous. The episternal process is not 

 perforated, and the oil-gland is absent. There is an aftershaft to the contour 

 feathers. In their pterylosis, myology, and digestive organs the Bustards show 

 close affinity with the Eails and Cranes. Amongst their external characters may 

 be mentioned the short, stout, and somewhat flattened bill, the ovate and pervious 

 nostrils, the feathers of the forehead reaching to their posterior margin ; the 

 moderately long, stout legs, the metatarsus longer than the middle toe and claw, 

 and reticulated, and the absence of the hallux. The wings are long and ample, the 

 primaries ten in number and very little longer than the secondaries ; the tail is 

 short, the rectrices varying from sixteen to twenty in number. Moult complete 

 in autumn, partial in spring. Young hatched covered with down, and soon able 

 to run and to feed. There are about thirty species in the present family, all 

 confined to the Old World, and most abundant in the Ethiopian region. The 

 present family has been subdivided by Dr. Sharpe, in our opinion quite need- 

 lessly, into no less than twelve genera, three of which contain but a single species, 

 and four others but two each ! In the present volume two genera only will be 

 recognized, each with a British representative. 



Genus OTIS, or Typical Bustards. 



Type, OTIS TAEDA. 



Otis, of Linnaeus (1766). The birds comprising the present genus are 

 distinguished by the various characters that have already been specified in the 

 account of the family ; and, in addition, they may be separated from the members 

 of the following genus (Houbara) by the absence of any ruff or feather shield 

 on the lower throat and foreneck overhanging the crop. 



This genus is composed of some twenty-three species (and, according to some 

 authorities, two subspecies), which are inhabitants of the Palaearctic, Oriental, 

 and Ethiopian regions, and most abundantly represented in the latter. 



The Bustards are dwellers on the open plains and steppes. They are birds of 

 powerful and rapid flight, but are most addicted to the ground, where they walk 

 and run with ease. Their notes are neither very loud nor very musical. They 

 make slight nests on the ground, and their eggs are from two to four or five in 

 number, and spotted. Their food consists of grain, seeds, buds and leaves of 

 plants, and insects. The flesh of some is highly esteemed. 



