607 



BUKSERA. 



BUSTARD. 



60S 



Example, Vursatetta, Leachii, which De Blainville says is the only 

 species of the genus. It is large, and a native of the East Indian seas. 



Bunattlla Leachii, 



BURSERA. [BUBSERACE*.] Bartera paniculata yields the Boi* de 

 Colophane. 



BURSERA'CE^E, a natural order of Exogenous plants, consisting 

 of balsamic, resinous, or gummy plants with pinnated leaves and small 

 hermaphrodite or unisexual polypetalous flowers, with a superior 

 ovary seated in a large circular disk. The fruit is a 2-5-celled drupe, 

 with its rind sometimes splitting into valves. It was formerly 

 included, among other orders, in the Terebintaceee of Jussieu, but it 

 differs from Amyridacea: and Anacardiacecc in its compound fruit. 

 Myrrh, frankincense, olibanum, balsam of Acouchi, gum elemi, balm 

 of Gilead, and opobalsamuin, or balsam of Mecca, are all products of 

 different species of the order. In his ' Vegetable Kingdom,' Lindley 

 includes this order under A myridacea. [AMYRIDACE^E.] It forms a 

 section of that order called Burseridce. 



BUSH-BUCK. [AXTILOPE^.] 



BUSTAMITE, a Mexican Mineral consisting of Silica, Manganese, 

 and Lime. It occurs in spherical and reniform masses. It has a 

 hardness of 6 to 6'5, and a specific gravity of 3'2. 



BUSTARD, the English name of a Bird belonging to the genus 

 Oti. The species are land-birds whose proper position in the orni- 

 thological system has caused some embarrassment to zoologists. 

 Temminck places the genus Oti under his twelfth order, Cursored 

 (Runners), observing that the genera Struthio, Jthea, and C'aesuariu* 

 ought to stand at the head of that order. Cuvier arranges the 

 Bustards under the Preairostret, his second family of his fifth order 

 (fichassiers, Grallce, Linn.) of birds, between the Cassowaries on one 

 side and CEdicnemut (Thick-Kneed Bustard or Stone Curlew) on the 

 other. Temminck makes Cursoriu* immediately succeed it, and 

 observes that among the species of that genus the passage between 

 Otit and Cursorius may be possibly found. It appears that the 

 Bustards partake of the organisation of the Struthious, Gallinaceous, 

 and Wading Birds fEchassiers, Grallatorei). Khea, without alluding 

 to the Dodo on the Struthious side, (Edicnemu* on that of the Plovers, 

 and the Turkey on the side of the Gallinaceous birds, make near 

 approaches to the genus under consideration ; while the Cariama of 

 Brisscp (Microdactylut of Geoffroy, I>ichalophiu of Illiger), a South 

 American form, seems te be one of its nearest representatives on the 

 new continent. [CARIAMA.] Vigors places the genus in his family 

 >'',- 'A I'oni&z (order Katorei), which occupies a position between the 

 Cracidiz and the Tetraonidw, while it approximates to the Gruidae and 

 Charadriadce in the order Grallatorei ; and, taking all the circum- 

 stances into consideration, this seems to be the best arrangement 

 hitherto proposed. 



The Bustards live generally in open countries, preferring plains or 

 wide-spreading extensive downs dotted with low bushes and under- 

 wood localities which give them an opportunity of descrying their 

 enemy from afar. They are said to fly but rarely, running from 

 danger with exceeding swiftness, and using their wings like the 

 ostriches to accelerate their course. When they do take wing their 

 flight is low, and they skirn along the ground with a sufficiently rapid 

 and sustained flight. Their food consists of vegetables, insects, 

 worms, grain, and seeds. They are polygamous, one male living with 

 many females, which, after fecundation, live solitary. Temminck says 

 that it would seem that they moult twice a year, and that the males 

 in the greatest number of species differ from the females in having 

 extraordinary ornaments, and in possessing a more variegated 

 plumage. He further observes that the young males wear the garb 

 of the female during the first and second year, and adds his suspicion 

 that the males in winter have the same plumage as the females. 

 Cuvier notices their massy port and the slightly arched and vaulted 

 upper mandible of their beak, which, with the little webs or palma- 

 tions between the bases of their toes, recal the form of the Gallinaceous 



birds ; but he adds that the nudity of the lower part of their legs, all 

 their anatomy, and even the flavour of their flesh, place them among 

 the Grallatores, and that, as they have, no hind toe, their smallest 

 species approach nearly to the Plovers. 



The following is the character of the genus : 



Bill of the length of the head or shorter, straight, conical, com- 

 pressed, or lightly depressed at the base ; point of the upper mandible 

 a little arched (voute"e.) 



Nostrils oval, open, approximated, distant from the base. 



Feet long, naked above the knee ; three front toes short, united at 

 their base, bordered by membranes. 



Wings moderate, the third quill longest in each wing. 



They are found in Europe, Asia, and Africa ; but not in America. 



0. tarda, the Great Bustard, is the Otis and Avis tarda of BeUon 

 and others ; Ostarde, Houtarde, Outarde, Bistarde of the French ; 

 Starda and Starda Commune of the Italians ; Der Grosse Trappe, 

 Trapp, Trappgans, and Ackentrapp of the Germans ; Abutarda (Avis 

 tarda) of the Spaniards ; and Custard of the old Scotch. 



From passages in the 'History of Animals' (ii. 17, vi. 6), there can 

 be scarcely a doubt that our Great Bustard is Aristotle's 'ClTis. 

 Indeed the doubts originated in a misunderstood passage in the 

 thirty-third chapter of his ninth book ; and it is clear from several 

 authorities that the bird and the quality of its flesh were well known 

 to the Greeks. Pliny evidently alludes to these birds as those " quas 

 Hispania aves tardas appellat, Grseeia otidas " ('Nat. Hist.' x. 22); 

 though he blunders about the flesh, telling an absurd story of its 

 effects, which arises from his confounding the iris with Aristotle's 

 u-ros, an owl. 



The following is the description of this bird given by Mr. Selby : The 

 male has the bill strong, grayish-white ; the under mandible palest. 

 Head, nape of- the neck, and ear-coverts, bluish-gray. A streak of 

 black passes along the crown of the head, reaching to the occiput. 

 Chin-feathers and moustaches composed of long wiry feathers, with 



Great Bustard (Oti> tarda), male. 



the barbs disunited and short. Fore part of the neck clothed with a 

 naked bluish-black skin, extending upwards toward the ear-coverts, 

 and covering the gular pouch. Sides of the neck white, tinged with 

 gray ; lower part of the neck fine reddish-orange. At the setting on 

 of the neck, or between the shoulders, is a space destitute of feathers, 

 but covered with a soft gray down. Scapulars buff-orange, barred 

 and spotted with black. Back, rump, and tail-coverts, reddish-orange, 

 barred and variegated with black. Greater coverts and some of the 

 secondaries bluish-gray, passing towards the tips into grayish-white. 

 Quills brownish-black, with their shafts white. Tail-feathers white 

 at their bases, passing towards the middle into brownish-orange, with 

 one or two black bars ; the tips often white, and, when the feathers 



