GREAT BUSTARD. 247 



first, and after walking cautiously along a branch, dropped upon 

 the nest on which she sat without the faintest trace of her form 

 being seen. In 1869, the hen birds disappeared for a considerable 

 time in the woods, and nothing was seen of them until each 

 appeared with a brood of about a dozen healthy chicks, feeding in 

 the small grass paddocks at the edges of the coverts, and enjoying 

 the sunshine. While the young ones were busily engaged in feed- 

 ing on insects, etc., the old birds were standing on the alert, with 

 outstretched necks, retidy to give the alarm on any approaching 

 danger. On being suddenly surprised, these quick-sighted sentinels 

 at once crouched close to the ground with a warning cry, and 

 remained motionless in this attitude, the young ones meanwhile 

 disappearing as if by magic in the surrounding tufts of grass. At a 

 later stage of their existence these broods, which spread themselves 

 in the neighbouring moors and in the woods adjoining, were killed 

 by shooting parties, the beaters having disturbed them along with 

 ordinary game. Mr Gllmour also mentioned that they in some cases 

 squatted so close to the ground as to be quite invisible among the 

 withered twigs and ferns, and that in one instance he had actually in 

 firing at a rabbit in the covert, shot a young wild turkey which had 

 been lying concealed in the course taken by the rabbit. Mr Gilmour 

 concluded his interesting paper with a description of the wild bird 

 as compared with those of the domestic breeds, remarking that it 

 possessed greater symmetry, and altogether a more compact form, 

 standing higher on its legs, and exhibiting other characters more 

 like those of a game bird than one of the gallinaceous order. The 

 plumage of the male especially was described as of the most perfect 

 bronze colour, gleaming in the sunshine like a splendid coat of 

 mail. The number of eggs was stated to be from sixteen to twenty, 

 and the time of incubation lasts thirty-one days. 



RA SORES. STRUTHIONIDJE. 



THE GEEAT BUSTAED. 



OTIS TARDA. 



THIS remarkable bird has been long extinct in Scotland. As a 

 resident species, it appears to have been entirely confined to 

 Berwickshire, and is thus referred to by Hector Boece, who 



