214 OTIDIDJE. 



pouch is preserved with the tongue, trachea, and oesophagus. 

 This specimen entirely agrees with those described by John 

 Hunter and the other anatomists who have since found it. 



" From the facts at present known regarding this subject 

 it may be concluded that a large sublingual air-pouch, which 

 runs down the anterior portion of the neck, is present in the 

 adult of Otis tarda and some other species of Bustards 

 during the breeding- season, that in young birds this pouch 

 is not developed, and that during the non-breeding-time this 

 pouch may, and perhaps always does, contract so consider- 

 ably as to become insignificant. 



" If, as it seems probable to me, the pouch contracts and 

 almost disappears in the intervals between the breeding- 

 seasons, the discrepancies in the different accounts may be 

 explained on the supposition that the birds examined were 

 obtained at different times of the year. In a specimen now 

 living in the Zoological Society's Gardens, which ' showed 

 off ' well during last summer and early this spring, no orifice 

 can be felt at the present time (June 24th) with the finger, 

 under the tongue, which could lead into any pouch, though 

 the floor of the mouth is felt to be carried a considerable 

 way further back than usual." 



Subsequently Professor Garrod found that in an Australian 

 Bustard (Eupodotis australis) examined by him, there was 

 no gular pouch, but merely an oesophagus dilatable at will, 

 and greatly inflated during the " show-off." 



The adult male has the beak clay-brown ; the irides hazel ; 

 the head and the upper part of the neck pale grey ; from 

 the chin, passing backwards and downwards on each side, 

 there is a tuft of bristled feathers, 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, and upper tail-coverts of an 

 ochreous-yellow or pale chestnut, barred transversely with 

 black ; the tail-feathers reddish, barred with black and 

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

 primaries greyish -brown, with white shafts ; neck in front 

 covered with long tawny feathers, which become thicker lower 



