116 BUSTARD SHOOTING. 



to be unable to fly without great difficulty. Thus 

 flapping its wings, in order to get enough air under- 

 neath them to permit its rising, it would run before 

 the enemy, and often be caught. The bustard has a 

 pouch under the tongue to contain water. There is 

 little record of them in North Britain. One was 

 shot m 1803 in Morayshire. The rifle is used to 

 shoot them, as well as the ordinary fowling-piece. 

 " The male bustard will stand two feet six or eight 

 inches in height, and, when the lengthened fea- 

 thers, which most of them possess on the throat, or 

 sides of the jaw, are raised, they have a very bold 

 and commandmg appearance." The back of neck, 

 shoulders, &c., have reddish-orange feathers, trans- 

 versed with interrupted bars of black. The head, 

 neck, and breast are bluish-grey, shading at the 

 lower part of the breast into pale grey and pure 

 white. Outer coverts, greyish white, secondaries, 

 deep browTi-black : very powerful quills, the first 

 shai-p, the under with their outer web expanding, 

 and becoming brown or black at their extremities. 

 The mid-tail feathers, reddish-orange, with white tips, 

 and a black bar, crossing at about an inch from the 

 end, and then a narrower one towards the base. 

 Generic characters : bill almost straight, depressed 

 slightly at the base ; open nostrils ; long legs ; the 

 tarsi naked above the knees; toes, three forwards, 

 bordered with a scutellated membrane; and short 

 wings, powerful; second, third, and fourth quills 

 largest, nearly equal ; first narrow towards the point. 



