454 



BUSTARDS, THICKNEES, AND CRANES. 



to get away by running. They fly with a regular flap of the wings, and 

 much faster than they appear to go. I cannot imagine greyhounds being able 

 to catch bustards, though there seems to be good authority for believing they 

 did." A full-grown male bustard will weigh from 26 to 30 lbs., or even rather 



more. 



Little Bustard. 



Far inferior in size to its larger relative, the little bustard 

 (0. tetrax) diftei-s by the absence of the moustache in the male, and 

 displays a greater diversity between the plumage of the two sexes, as well as a 

 seasonal variation in that of the male. In the summer plumage, the latter sex, as 

 represented in our illustration, has the general colour of the upper plumage bufiish 



LITTLE BUSTARD, IN BREEDING-PLUMAGE (J nat. size). 



brown, venniculated with black, and two black and two white gorgets on the 

 lower neck and breast. On the other hand, the female (which is equal in size to 

 her partner) at all seasons, and the male in winter have the head and upper-parts 

 streaked and blotched with black, and no black gorgets on the breast. In length 

 these birds measure only about 17 inches. 



The little bustard, which is but a rare and generally a winter visitor to 

 Britain, is widely spread in suitable localities over Europe and Central Asia, 

 ranging in winter to the trans-Indus districts of India and to Northern Africa. 

 From Africa these birds migrate to their northern breeding-haunts in vast flocks 

 during April, returning in still greater numbers in October, when it is said that in 

 crossing the plains to the south of the Caucasus they reach to millions. Although 



