650 



BUTCHER S' BROOM B U T I R I N US. 



conjectures as to the use of this pouch in the eco- 

 nomy of the birds, but they are far from satisfactory, 

 and the point remains undecided, it is not under- 

 stood ever to contain any liquid. It has been con- 

 sidered as a reservoir for water ; but bustards drink 

 very little, if they drink at all ; and the usual stories 

 of animals carrying water in any reservoirs within 

 their bodies, either for their own supply or for that of 

 their young or any one else, have no better foundation 

 than the now exploded error, that water for the supply 

 of travellers in the desert can be had from the reticu- 

 lated portion of the compound stomach of the camel. 



The female bustard wants this pouch, as also the 

 pendent feathers and the violet-coloured naked skin 

 on the sides of the neck. She is not half the size of 

 the male, or exceeding it, and her colours are rather 

 different. The grey upon the head and scapulars is 

 darker ; the mottlings with black are smaller and 

 more uniform, and they are continued on the feathers 

 of the tail in place of the definite black hue which is 

 drawn upon that of her mate. She lays her eggs 

 upon the ground with little or no formal nest, as is 

 the case with the gallinidse, and also with those long- 

 legged birds which the bustards most resemble in 

 other respects. The female bustard is a very close 

 sitter during her incubation, and can with great diffi- 

 culty be raised from her eggs. There are in general 

 only two for a brood, produced early in the season, 

 and the time of sitting on them extends to about four 

 weeks. The young are, at first, wholly covered with 

 down of a pale yellowish brown colour, mottled with 

 darker brown and black : and they follow the birds 

 which have the chief resemblances to the bustard in 

 other respects, in being able to follow their mother, 

 and to pick up their own food as soon as they break 

 the shell. Until they are fledged and able to take to 

 the wing, they seek their safety from enemies by 

 squatting closely among the clods, which they resem- 

 ble in colour. When bustards are fledged, they always 

 seek to escape from ground enemies by flight ; and 

 therefore the old stories which are told of the sport 

 obtained by coursing them with greyhounds cannot 

 be true. 



The small remnant of those birds which is left in 

 England is found chiefly, if not exclusively, in the 

 county of Norfolk, but they summer and winter there, 

 and are not migrant birds. The extensive corn fields, 

 where there are few trees or enclosures, are their 

 favourite haunts in the breeding season, and generally 

 till the harvest comes on ; and after that they retire 

 to the fields of turnip. They are much more abun- 

 dant, and also more migrant, on the continent of 

 Europe than they are in England ; but they always 

 prefer dry flats to marshy ones, and in those places 

 which are subject to heavy periodical rains they shift 

 their quarters. 



THE LITTLE BUSTARD (Otis tctrajc] is much 

 smaller than that species of which a very short 

 account has been given. It is not much more than 

 one-third of the length, and its wings are shorter in 

 proportion, but it is a stouter and weightier bird in 

 proportion to its lineal dimensions. The upper part 

 is brown, mottled with innumerable small spots of 

 black, and the general tint of the under part is white, 

 with spots of black. The male has a tinge of rose 

 colour on the breast, and, when full grown, a black 

 collar round the neck, with white margins. This 

 collar is wanting in the female and immature birds 

 and in the adult male, both it and the rosy tint on 



the breast are most conspicuous during the breeding 

 season. Though rare in Britain, tins species is me; 

 with plentifully in the dry and warm parts of southern 

 and eastern Europe. 



RUFFED BUSTARD (Otis 1toubara\ This species 

 U a native of Arabia and the north of Africa. It is 

 about the size of the common fowl, but the body is 

 larger in proportion, and better fitted for running. 

 The prevailing colour is pale yellowish brown, with 

 black ; there is a pendent crest of white feathers on 

 the' head, and a ruff of produced and credible feathers 

 on the side of the neck, which are of a dull white 

 colour, marked with black lines. 



There are various other species in Africa and 

 India, but they have nothing peculiar in their man- 

 ners as differing from those already mentioned, and 

 many of them partake so much of the characters of 

 some of the plover family, that it is not easy to draw 

 a line of distinction between them. 



BUTCHER'S BROOM is the Ruscus (box- 

 holly) of Linnaeus. The English name is derived 

 from the custom of butchers frequently making besoms 

 of it to sweep their blocks. It belongs to the Lin- 

 naean class and order Dicecia Monadc/p/tia, and to the 

 natural order SmilacecE. The generic character is : 

 calyx of the males in six sepals ; corolla none. 

 Females, rudiment of the ovary oval, perforated at 

 the end; style one; berry three-celled: seeds two. 

 This is, though a humble, a very curious plant : it 

 has thick, white roots, and sends up a plurality of 

 stems, which are half shrubby. It has numerous leaves 

 armed with sharp prickles at the points. The flowers 

 of some species are borne on the upper surface of the 

 leaf; on others on the under side : the R. androgymu 

 bears the flowers on the edges. The female flowers 

 are followed by fruit resembling small cherries, each 

 containing two seeds. All the species are readily 

 increased by suckers. 



BUTEA (Roxburgh). Named in honour of John, 

 Earl of Bute, a great patron of botanists. It is a genus 

 of three species of East Indian trees. They are decan- 

 drious, and belong to Leguminosce. Generic character : 

 calyx bell-shaped, with five teeth ; vexillum lance- 

 shaped, and somewhat reflexed ; pod on a footstalk, 

 smoothly compressed, membranaceous, not bursting, 

 having one seed at the point; seed large and flat. 

 These trees, like almost all the order to which they 

 belong, bear splendid flowers, and are also useful to 

 man. From B. frondosa is obtained the gum lac of 

 commerce. Infusions of the flowers, impregnated 

 with a solution of alum, or of alum and tartar, dye 

 cotton cloth of a beautiful yellow colour. 



BUTIRINUS. A genus of malacoptervgeous, or 

 soft-finned fishes, with abdominal fins, belonging to 

 the herring family. They are very abundant in the 

 warmer seas, and there are a good many species, as 

 well as abundance of individuals, of each. They 

 have the silvery appearance of the scales, which is 

 characteristic of the family, and, like all the rest, 

 they are esculent and wholesome. Their jaws are 

 formed like those of the herring, but their bodies 

 are longer and rounder. . They have the snout pro- 

 jecting something in the manner of the anchovies, 

 and the opening of the mouth not very deep. Their 

 most distinguishing character is having teeth arranged 

 in raised spots and lines both on the tongue and the 

 palate. So far as their manners are known, they do 

 not appear to differ materially from those of the 

 common herring. Indeed, all the family have a great 



