OTIS. 193 



Key to the Species. 



a. Very large ; wing 19-24 inches O. tarda, p. 193. 



b. Small ; wing about 10 inches O. tetrax, p. 193 



1412. Otis tarda. The Great Bustard. 



Otis tarda, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 264 (1766); Hume, Ibis, 1871, 

 p. 404: id. S. I. vii, p. 434; Hume $ Marsh. Game-B. i, p. 1, 

 pi. ; Hume, Cat. no. 836 bis ; Sharpe, Tr. Linn. Soc. (2) v, pt. 3, 

 p. 87 ; id. Cat. B. M. xxiii, p. 284. 



Coloration. Male. Head and upper neck light ashy grey, chin 

 and long bristly feathers on each side of the throat white ; the 

 grey passes all round the base of the neck into dull rufous with a 

 few black spots, which forms a band across the upper breast ; bark, 

 scapulars, tertiaries, and smaller wing-coverts rufous-buff, closely 

 and broadly but rather irregularly barred across with black ; lower 

 back and rump deeper rufous with fewer bars ; median and greater 

 wing-coverts greyish white ; primaries dark brown ; secondaries 

 greyish white, with black tips that diminish gradually on the inner 

 quills ; middle tail-feathers deep rufous like the rump with rather 

 distant black cross-bars, outermost feathers greyish white with a 

 subterminal black band, the other rectrices intermediate in colo- 

 ration between the middle and outer pairs : lower parts from 

 breast white. 



In females and young males the grey of the fore neck comes 

 down to the upper breast, and there is no rufous gorget ; other- 

 wise the sexes are similar in plumage. The whiskers are wanting 

 in females, and the size is smaller. 



Bill dull lead-grey, blackish at the tip ; irides dark brown ; legs 

 dirty earth-grev (Dresser). 



Length of male about 42 inches ; tail 11 ; wing 24 ; tarsus 6'5 ; 

 bill from gape 3-25 : of a female, length 33 inches ; tail 10 ; wing 

 19 ; tarsus 5 ; bill from gape 2-6. Large males have been shot 

 weighing as much as 30 pounds, but they take several years to 

 attain their full growth. 



Distribution. Southern and Central Europe and Northern Africa, 

 with Central Asia as far east as China. A single specimen in the 

 Hume Collection (now in the British Museum) was obtained near 

 Mardan, in the extreme north-west of the Punjab, Dec. 23, 1870. 

 The individual secured, a female, was one of a party of five or six 

 in a field of mustard. 



1413. Otis tetrax. The Little Bustard. 



Otis tetrax, Linn. St/st. Nat. i, p. 264 (1766); Jerdon, B. /. Hi, 



p. 625 ; Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 163 ; Beavan, Ibis, 1868, p. 388 ; 



Hume, S. F. vii, p. 435; Hume fy Marsh. Game B. i, p. 3, pi.; 



Hume, Cat. no. 836 ter; Biddulph, Ibis, 1881, p. 94 ; Scully, ibid. 



p. 586 ; Swinhoe, Ibis, 1882, p. 119; St. John, Ibis, 1889, p. 175 ; 



Sharve, Yark. Miss., Aves, p. 145. 



Tetrax 'campestris, Leach, Syst. Cat. B. M. p. 28 (1810). 

 Tetrax tetrax, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xxiii, p. 287. 



Chnta tilur, Punjab. 

 VOL. IV. O 



