LITTLE BUSTARD. 47 



again passed into Mr. Bartlett's possession. The sex of 

 this specimen was not ascertained, but like the rest it 

 is of course in winter plumage. The river Thet being 

 the boundary between the two counties, this bird was in 

 point of fact killed in Suffolk, but having wandered 

 from place to place before its capture, it certainly 

 deserves notice in the present work. 



After recording such a series of local specimens, one 

 may safely class the little bustard amongst those rarer 

 migrants, which can be confidently looked for from time 

 to time, and, from the regularity of its appearance 

 during certain months of the year only, it may be 

 reckoned as an occasional winter visitant. Whether 

 occurring, also, as early as September or as late as 

 March, the severity of the season seems, in most cases, 

 to have accounted for the appearance of this species, 

 driven at the same time by contrary winds thus far 

 to the westward of its ordinary course. Whether males 

 or females actually predominate it is impossible to 

 determine, since only in three instances have we the 

 actual test of dissection, viz., in the Wisbech, Mr. 

 Gurney's, and my own specimen. But on comparing 

 my male bird with Mr. Gurney's female, both in full 

 winter plumage, I find the only perceptible difference is 

 in the depth of colouring generally. In the hen bird, all 

 the darker markings are more defined, the margins to the 

 feathers on the throat and breast, the bars on the tail, 

 and the spots on the flanks, being broader and deeper in 

 tint, than in my own specimen.* At the same time, 

 there is far less difference between my bird and the 

 supposed females in the Norwich museum (the Trunch 



* I have lately examined two specimens of the little bustard, 

 in the University Museum at Cambridge, both marked females, 

 and in winter plumage, one of which is identical in colour and 

 markings with my own, and presents, I imagine, the ordinary 

 plumage of the young male in its first autumn. 



