MACQUEEN'S BUSTAED. 11 



unexpected inland lake, whose quiet waters throw back the 

 shadows of the neighbouring low hills, and glisten farther off 

 with the beams of the 'Rising Sun,' the snowy Egret, with 

 its graceful crest, the stately Crane, and the 'Pelican of the 

 wilderness,' stand side by side, White Herons watch motionless 

 at the margin, and variegated wildfowl float lazily upon the 

 crystal surface: you stretch off into the desert, and now the 

 Bustard springs up from your feet. 



Much does Mr. Layard's 'Nineveh and Babylon' make one 

 long to follow him in his wanderings in those countries of 

 wonder, as it has led me to wander with him in thought, 

 and at the same time from my subject, to which I must return, 

 and give the description of the bird before us. 



It occurs from the Himalaya Mountains to Siberia. 



The specimen, Mr. Alfred Roberts informs me, was very wild. 



He found that it had fed on caterpillars, beetles, and small 

 snails. 



Female; weight, two pounds and a quarter; length, one 

 foot eleven inches; bill, dark lead-colour, compressed at the 

 tip, depressed at the base; iris, yellow. Head and crown, pale 

 rufous, mottled with black; neck on the back, white, minutely 

 mottled with brown; on the sides ornamented with a range 

 of feathers two inches long, about two thirds of the upper 

 portion black, the lower part white; chin, white; throat, pale 

 rufous, mottled with zigzag black bars. The wings extend when 

 closed to the end of the tail; they expand to the width of 

 three feet eight inches; greater and lesser wing coverts, pale 

 rufous, mottled with zigzag black bars; primaries, black; the 

 legs, which are bare of feathers a little above the knee, and 

 toes, greenish yellow. 



