PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 543 



most cases, though occasionally a light blue or greenish blue type also occurs, in 

 which the markings are almost obsolete. Most eggs have rather indistinct smears 

 and blotches of varying depths of some shade of brown and a few paler shellmarks. 

 (PL N.) Average size of 60 eggs, 3-12 x 2-25 in. [79'3 x 57'2 mm.]. Incubation is 

 performed by the female alone, who is apparently deserted at this season by the 

 male. The period, as observed in confinement, is given as 25 days (Zoologist, 1880, 

 p. 254), but Mr. St. Quintin found a recently hatched young bird on the 28th 

 day. Naumann gives it as 30 days. In South Spain eggs may be found during 

 the last fortnight of April and the first week of May, but in Germany rarely 

 before the beginning of May, and often not till the middle of the month. Only 

 one brood is reared during the season, though the hens will lay again if the first 

 clutch of eggs is destroyed, and in consequence eggs have been found in Germany 

 as late as July, and in Spain up to the end of June. [F. c. B. J.] 



5. Food. The staple food of this species in Central Europe consists of 

 vegetable matter, green herbage, buds, and leaves of various plants ; corn and 

 seeds of various kinds are also eaten, and when available insects are also captured. 

 Among the more commonly eaten plants may be mentioned young corn, clover, 

 cabbage, turnip, and especially rape leaves, besides various species of grasses, 

 and the buds and young shoots of many wild plants (Hieracium, Plantago, Apargia, 

 Crepis, Leontodon, and ValerianeUa). This green vegetable matter is found in a 

 comminuted state in the crop, together with insects, which predominate during 

 the summer months. In Germany most of these are Coleoptera : nearly half out 

 of a total of 214 insects identified by Rorig were beetles of the genus Silpha, while 

 the genus Cassida was represented by 39 specimens. Earthworms, lizards, frogs, 

 and even field-mice are occasionally eaten. In Spain grasshoppers and other 

 Orthoptera form the bulk of their food in summer, as well as some beetles. Up 

 to July the Orthoptera are generally in the wingless larval state, but afterwards in 

 the adult stage. In the winter and early spring they feed chiefly on vegetable 

 food. The young are tended by the hen alone, and feed almost entirely on insect 

 food. [F. c. B. J.] 



The following species are described in the supplementary chapter on " Rare 

 Birds" :- 



Little bustard, Otis tetrax LinnaBus. 



Macqueen's bustard or Asiatic houbara, Houbdra undvldta macqueeni (Gray 

 and Hardwick). [F. c. R. J.] 



