116 BUSTARD SHOOTING. 



to be unable to fly without great difficulty. Thus 

 flapping its wings, in order to get enough air under- 

 neath them to permit its rising, it would run before 

 the enemy, and often be caught. The bustard has a 

 pouch under the tongue to contain water. There is 

 little record of them in North Britain. One was 

 shot in 1803 in Morayshire. The rifle is used to 

 shoot them, as well as the ordinary fowling-piece. 

 " The male bustard will stand two feet six or eight 

 inches in height, and, when the lengthened fea- 

 thers, which most of them possess on the throat, or 

 sides of the jaw, are raised, they have a very bold 

 and commanding appearance." The back of neck, 

 shoulders, &c., have reddish-orange feathers, trans- 

 versed with interrupted bars of black. The head, 

 neck, and breast are bluish-grey, shading at the 

 lower part of the breast into pale grey and pure 

 white. Outer coverts, greyish white, secondaries, 

 deep brown-black : very powerful quills, the first 

 sharp, the under with their outer web expanding, 

 and becoming brown or black at their extremities. 

 The mid-tail feathers, reddish-orange, with white tips, 

 and a black bar, crossing at about an inch from the 

 end, and then a narrower one towards the base. 

 Generic characters : bill almost straight, depressed 

 slightly at the base ; open nostrils ; long legs ; the 

 tarsi naked above the knees ; toes, three forwards, 

 bordered with a scutellated membrane ; and short 

 wings, powerful; second, third, and fourth quills 

 largest, nearly equal ; first narrow towards the point. 



