552 THE GREAT-BUSTARD 



under the charge of two or three big old males, which, however, do not 

 weigh nearly so much at this season as in the spring. Chapman gives 

 the average autumn weight of males as 20 to 22 lb., while in spring 

 they range from 28 to 30 lb., exceptionally 33 to 34 lb. One old cock 

 now in the Natural History Museum, S. Kensington, actually weighed 

 37 lb. ! l The hens are much smaller, and rarely exceed 15 lb. One 

 killed in February, and recorded by Verner, only weighed 12 lb. 

 A contributory cause of the increased weight of the old cocks 

 in spring is to be found in the distension of the neck at that 

 season. 2 At this time the gular pouch, formerly the subject of 

 so much controversy, which has its entrance beneath the tongue, 

 has attained its greatest size and is thickly covered with fat. 

 This pouch, which was at first erroneously supposed to be a recep- 

 tacle for storing water, is only present in fully adult males, and 

 is only distended during the display in the breeding season. In 

 immature males and females it is absent, so that a long and at 

 times somewhat acrimonious controversy took place between those 

 who had found this organ and those who, failing to find it, were 

 incredulous as to its existence. 3 Curiously enough, in an Australian 

 species of bustard a very similar effect is produced by entirely different 

 means, the oesophagus being dilated with air, like that of the pouter 

 pigeon. 



On the whole, bustards are remarkably silent birds. The whistling 

 or whining noise made by the young bird has already been referred 

 to, and Mr. St. Quintin has noticed that it is occasionally used by 

 adult birds also when in distress or separated from their companions. 

 This note carries a long way, and is very hard to locate. Mr. Eldred 



1 Another of the same weight is recorded by Colonel Verner. 



2 Cf. Verner, My Life among the Wild Birds in Spain, p. 145. Mr. W. P. Pycraft, however, 

 is of opinion that the difference in weight due to this cause is very small. No doubt the crops 

 of the spring^killed birds would also be distended with food. 



3 See Newton, Ibis, 1862, p. 107 ; Cullen, Ibis, 1865, p. 143 ; Flower, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1865, 

 p. 747 : Murie, t. c., 1868, p. 471 ; and 1869, p. 140 : Garrod, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1874, p. 471 ; and Pycraft, 

 Nat. Sc., xiii. p. 313 (1898). Cf. also Newton, Diet, of Birds, p. 65 ; and Pycraft, A Book of Birds. 

 A similar pouch is also found in a species of duck, Biziura lobata. Cf. Beddard, Structure and 

 Classification of Birds, p. 458. 



