222 OTIDID.E. 



Cliff, Kirton-in-Lindsey, Lincolnshire, on the 7th of October, 

 1847 (Zool. pp. 1969, 2065, 2146). This is the only 

 specimen obtained in Great Britain .down to the present 

 time. 



On the Continent the visits of this Asiatic bird have 

 been more frequent, although there is difficulty in identify- 

 ing some of the earlier occurrences, owing to this species 

 having been formerly confused with the closely allied African 

 representative 0. undulata. Modern research, wherever 

 practicable, renders it, however, tolerably certain that the 

 five " Houbara Bustards " recorded as having occurred in 

 Northern Germany between the years 1800 and 1847, were 

 all, or nearly all, examples of 0. macqueeni. In Belgium 

 three genuine examples of this species have been obtained : 

 viz., one in September, 1842 ; one near Louvain, in Decem- 

 ber, 1844 ; and one near Brussels, on the 13th December, 

 1845. In February, 1847, one was killed on the Swedish 

 island of Oeland ; on the 12th November, 1857, an adult 

 female was shot, out of a flock of six individuals, near Flens- 

 burg, in Schleswig; in December, 1860, one was captured 

 alive in the district of Ilza, in Poland ; on September 19th, 

 1861, one was obtained near Helsingfors, in Finland ; and 

 recently, one was shot in the latter part of September, 1880, 

 in Livonia (Zool. Garten, 1881, p. 156). In Italy, where the 

 African form might rather have been expected to occur, two 

 females of the Asiatic species were obtained near Rome, in 

 November and December, 1859, and are, respectively, in the 

 Museum at Florence and that of the University of Rome. 

 These examples were referred to 0. undulata by Dr. Salva- 

 dori, who had not seen them, but Professor Giglioli identifies 

 them with the Asiatic bird ; and, apparently, the rare occur- 

 rences of the African Ruffed Bustard in Europe are limited 

 to Malta and Southern Spain. 



Captain Hutton states that Macqueen's Bustard is common, 

 and remains all the year on the stony plains of Afghanistan, 

 where it is sometimes seen in small packs of five or six 

 together. It flies heavily, and for short distances, soon 

 alighting and running. Severtzow obtained it on migration 



