THE GREAT-BUSTARD 



[ORDER : Gruiformes. FAMILY : Otididce] 

 PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 



[F. C. R. JOURDAIN. W. P. PYCRAFT. A. L. THOMSON] 



GREAT-BUSTARD \6tis tdrda Linnaeus. French, outarde barbue; 

 German, Grosstrappe ; Italian, otarda]. 



i, Description. Apart from its large size, the great-bustard is distinguished 

 from its congeners by the bright rust colour and sharply defined black bars of the 

 upper parts. There is no seasonal change of plumage, and the sexes differ some- 

 what in coloration. (PL 131.) Length 43 in. [1092-20 mm.]. The male has a tuft of 

 long, stiff, buffish white erectile feathers at the base of lower jaw. The head and 

 hind-neck are pale grey. The scapulars, interscapulars, tail-coverts, smaller whig- 

 coverts, and innermost secondaries rust-yellow barred with black. The lower neck 

 is of a deep rust colour, forming a gorget in the prepectoral region more or less 

 barred with black ; while the middle of the fore-neck is pale buff. The middle tail 

 feathers are rust colour, with white bases ; as the series is traced outwards the 

 white gradually replaces the rust colour, and all have a black subterminal bar. 

 The primaries are black, the middle series of secondaries are white. The female is 

 conspicuously smaller than the male. Length 30 in. [762-0 mm.]. The head and neck 

 are of a dull smoke-grey, and the upper parts are more heavily barred with black. 

 The juvenile plumage recalls that of the female, but is paler and duller, and freckled 

 with dusky bars on the wing-coverts and secondaries, while the white tail feathers 

 have short black bars, and the white areas are everywhere suffused with chestnut 

 and mottled with grey. The downy young are of a dull buff colour, and marked 

 by more or less distinct longitudinal stripes of dark grey, these stripes having 

 broken up more or less completely to form mottlings. The downy bases of the 

 feathers of the adult are remarkable for their delicate rose-pink colour, which, 

 however, soon fades after death, [w. p. p.] 



VOL. III. 4 A 



