124 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



with the same blackish shafts ; cheeks white, the fore-part 

 streaked with black shafts ; chin and upper throat white : sides 

 of neck black, commencing in a streak close behind the ear- 

 coverts and extending into a ruff of stiffened feathers, the basal 

 plumes black, the succeeding ones white, with broad black 

 tips, succeeded by a tuft cf feathery white plumes; lower 

 throat and fore-neck bluish-grey, the former obscured by 

 sandy-buff, slightly freckled with black ; the plumes of the fore- 

 neck elongated and bluish-grey, with white tips ; remainder of 

 under surface of body white, with some freckled feathers on 

 the sides of the upper breast, and some black cross-bars on 

 the under tail-coverts, all of the latter plumes with a concealed 

 tinge of pink at the base ; under wing-coverts and axillaries 

 pure white ; bill bluish or dusky above, paler, usually greenish 

 or yellowish, on the gape and lower mandible ; feet pale yellow, 

 never clean and bright, mostly with a dingy greenish or plum- 

 beous tinge, at times creamy ; iris varying from pale to bright 

 yellow. Total length, 28 inches; culmen, r8; wing, 157; 

 tail, 9-5 ; tarsus, 4-9. 



Adult Female. Smaller than the male, with the crest and ruff 

 less developed, the freckling on the lower throat and fore-neck 

 rather coarser. Total length, 23 inches; culmen, 1-65 ; wing, 

 16-0; tail, 7 - o; tarsus, 37. 



Young Birds. Resemble the old female, but always to be dis- 

 tinguished by the arrow-head markings of sandy-buff on the 

 upper surface. The grey on the fore-neck is obscured by 

 sandy frecklings, and the white primaries are deeply tinged 

 with sandy-buff. The frill is always much smaller, and only a 

 few elongated feathers represent the crest of the adults, these 

 plumes being coarsely freckled with black. 



Range in Great Britain. One of our rarest visitors, only two 

 examples being known to have occurred within our limits, one 

 having been killed near Kirton-in-Lindsey in Lincolnshire in 

 October, 1847, and another near Redcar in October, 1892. 



Range outside the British Islands. The breeding-place of Mac- 

 queen's Bustard appears to be the steppes of Central Asia as 

 far east as the Altai Mountains and the Baikal district. In 

 winter it is found in great abundance in North-western India 

 and Sind, and it also winters in Persia and Baluchistan, as far as 



