BUSTARDS. 357 



ORDER 4. GRALL^. 



Waders. 



Legs high, naked more or less over the knee. Hind 

 toe generally placed high up, often wanting. Baak long, 

 round. Wings long; under wing coverts or scapulars 

 very long. Tail short, of twelve to twenty feathers. 



They are all summer migrants to the north, although 

 occasionally an odd specimen remains in the south through 

 the winter of the purple sandpiper, and even of the wood- 

 cock and water rail. 



Fam. 1. PEESSIEOSTEES, Cuv. 



Beak straight ; legs tolerably high. Live on dry 

 sandy plains, or stony sandy beaches, not on mosses or 

 swamps. 



Gren. Otis, Lin. 



Beak as long as the head; upper mandibles swollen; 

 gape wide; nostrils oval, open in the middle of the 

 beak; legs high, naked above the knee, reticulated. No 

 hind toe. Second, third, or fourth, wing feather longest. 

 Tail rounded, twenty feathers. 



The bustards form a good link between the rasores 

 and the true waders, partaking of the characters of both. 



165. OTIS TARDA, L. Storre Trappen. The Bustard. D. F. 

 Length, 3 ft. 9 in. ; beak, from gape, 3| in. Naked 

 space above the knee 2 in. Colour, head and neck 

 pale ash grey; mantle deeply spotted transversely 

 with black and rusty yellow. Wing feathers black- 

 brown, white at the roots. In the male, at the root of 

 the under mandible, is a plume of narrow feathers 

 about 7 in. long, falling backwards, covering a strip 

 of bluish grey skin, on the sides and front of the neck. 

 Legs black ; tail rounded. The female resembles 

 the male ; but is smaller, and wants the moustache. 

 Was formerly common on the sandy plains of South 



