450 STRUTHIONID.E. 



part of the skin of the bird. The wound was too high up 

 to have been caused by a trap, and perhaps the accident 

 had occurred by the Bustard getting his leg entangled 

 among the bars of sheep hurdles, and making great efforts 

 to get loose. The wound was apparently of some days' 

 standing, and had bled considerably. That the bird was 

 weak and exhausted may be safely inferred from its allow- 

 ing a boy to drag it along the ground by the wing, so 

 bold and pugnacious as this species is known to be when 

 in health ; there was, moreover, very little blood within 

 the skin where the neck was broken. The soft parts had 

 been irrecoverably made away with, or I should have ex- 

 amined the neck with great interest. 



The figure and the descriptions of plumage here given 

 are taken from a very fine pair of these birds in the 

 Museum of the Zoological Society. 



The adult male has the beak clay brown ; the irides 

 hazel ; the head and the upper part of the neck greyish 

 white ; from the chin, passing backwards and downwards 

 on each side, there is a tuft or plume about seven inches 

 long, directed across and partly concealing a vertically- 

 elongated strip of bare skin of a bluish grey colour ; the 

 lower part of the neck behind, the back, upper tail-coverts 

 and tail-feathers, of an ochreous yellow or pale chestnut, 

 barred transversely with black ; the tail-feathers tipped 

 with white ; the wing-coverts and tertials white ; the 

 primaries black, with white shafts ; neck in front, the 

 breast, all the under surface of the body, the thighs, and 

 under tail-coverts white ; under surface of the tail-feathers 

 barred transversely with dusky grey ; legs, toes, and claws, 

 brown. 



The whole length of the male bird is forty-five inches. 

 From the carpal joint to the end of the wing, twenty-four 

 inches and a half: the first quill-feather shorter than the 



