OTIDJE OTIS 301 



Eupodotis caffra, Giimcij, Ibis, 1860, p. 216, 1864, p. 360, 1868, p. 467 

 [Natal] ; La-yard, B. S. Afr. p. 283 (1867) ; Drummond, Large Game, 

 p. 408 (1875) ; Ayres, Ibis, 1878, p. 298 ; Holub < Pelz. Orn. Sud-Afr. 

 p. 233 (1882) ; Bnjden, Kloof and Karoo, p. 319, with plate (1889). 



Neotis caffra, SJiarpe, Cat. B. M. xxiii, p. 301 (1894) ; Woodward Bros., 

 Natal Birds, p. 176 (1899) ; Oates, Cat, B. Eggs, ii, pp. 87, 366 (1902). 

 "Isema" of Amaxosa (Stanford). 



Description. Adult Male. Forehead and crown of the head 

 black with white bases to the feathers ; a white eyebrow and upper 

 throat ; sides of the face including the ear-coverts, sides of the neck 

 and front of the neck and chest* bluish-slate ; lower half of the 

 hinder aspect of the neck tawny-rufous, separated from the bluish- 

 slate by a posterior lateral band of white on each side meeting 

 below the occiput ; mantle, back, upper tail-coverts, ulnar edge of 

 the wing, lesser wing-coverts and inner longer secondaries dark 

 brown, finely and richly vermiculated with pale sandy-rufous, but 

 with no arrow-shaped larger spots ; wing-quills and coverts black, 

 most of the latter with white tips or subterminal bands, the former 

 especially in the case of the sixth primary, with a good deal of 

 white, especially at their bases or on their inner webs ; tail-feathers 

 black with three transverse bands and a narrow tip of white on 

 the two central feathers, the subterminal white bands somewhat 

 obscured by mottling ; below from the breast onwards, including 

 the axillaries and under wing-coverts white. 



Iris light hazel ; upper mandible dusky, lower one yellowish ; 

 legs and feet dingy yellowish-white. 



Length about 43-0; wing 23-0; tail 10-75; tarsus 6-0; culmen 

 2'55 ; weight, according to Ayres, 20 Ibs. 



The female is a good deal smaller than the male ; the centre 

 of the crown is ashy- white, finely vermiculated with darker ; the 

 bluish-slate of the sides of the face, neck and breast is replaced by 

 white, closely-spotted and vermiculated with brown. Length about 

 34-0; wing 18-0; tarsus 5-1; weight (Ayres) 9 Ibs. 



Distribution. The Stanley. Bustard is found over the greater 

 part of South Africa from Cape Colony to the limits of the high 

 veld of the Transvaal. It was not met with by Andersson in 

 German South-west Africa, nor, so far as I am aware, has it been 

 recorded from Ehodesia. Beyond our limits it has been obtained 

 in Southern Angola, in the central parts of German East Africa, up 

 to the Victoria Nyanza, and recently on the Ubangi, a northern 

 tributary of the Congo. 



