194 OTIDID^E. 



Coloration. Male in winter plumage. Whole upper surface buff, 

 vermiculatecl with black and with some larger black blotches ; 

 crown much blotched with black ; hind neck brownish, with fine 

 black specks and pale mesial streaks to the feathers ; greater 

 primary-coverts blackish brown with \vhite tips ; primaries dark 

 brown, all tipped white except the first two or three, and all white 

 at the base, the w r hite increasing on the inner feathers : second- 

 aries with their greater and some of their median coverts white, 

 often a few black spots on the quills : tertiaries like back ; middle 

 tail-feathers mottled black and buff,*with narrow black cross-bars, 

 outer feathers similar, but with white instead of buff and with 

 white tips and bases, the white increasing on the outermost 

 feathers ; chm and throat whitish ; sides of head and neck and 

 fore neck streaked and mixed with black and buff ; breast and 

 remainder of lower parts white. 



Females are more coarsely vermiculatecl as a rule on the back 

 and more blotched with black ; the feathers of the upper breast 

 are buff with subterminal, more or less crescentic black bars. 



Males in breeding-plumage have nob been noticed in India. 

 They have the cheeks, chin, and throat dark bluish grey, neck all 

 round blacls, except a U-shaped white band on the fore neck, and 

 another white pectoral band followed by an equally broad black 

 one on the upper breast. The feathers of the hind neck are 

 elongate. 



Bill dusky, yellowish at base ; irides light brown ; legs dirty 

 yellow (Scully}. 



Length 18 ; tail 4*75 ; wing 10 ; tarsus 2'5 ; bill from gape 1*5. 



Distribution. Southern Europe, Northern Africa, and Central 

 Asia, including Afghanistan and Tarkand. A few birds occur in 

 Gilgit, and this species is a regular winter visitant to the extreme 

 North-western Punjab near Peshawar. A few stragglers are found 

 occasionally east of the Indus, and the species has been recorded 

 from Gurdaspur and even from Saharanpur. 



Habits, fyc. In the Punjab the Little Bustard keeps much to 

 fields of mustard. This species has a different flight from other 

 Bustards ; it rises to a great height in the air, and nutters and 

 twists about in a peculiar way. It is sometimes shot but more 

 frequently hawked, the Saker Falcon being trained to capture it. 



Genus EUPODOTIS, Lesson, 1839. 



This genus is distinguished from Otis by having a considerably 

 longer bill, longer legs, tail, and wings, by the possession of an 

 occipital crest in both sexes, and by the feathers of the throat and 

 fore neck being lengthened. The size is large, but the male much 

 exceeds the female in this respect. 



Four species are known, two of which are African, one Indian, 

 and one, scarcely distinguishable from the Indian bird, Australian. 



