62 CURSORES. 



feathers in some attitudes conceal, and in others disclose, 

 naked spots of a violet colour on the sides of the neck. The 

 lower part of the neck passes into a fine reddish orange, 

 which is also the prevailing ground colour on the upper part 

 of the bird, but lighter on the scapulars, and inclining to 

 grey on the lesser wing coverts ; and there is a tuft of down 

 at the articulation of the neck inclining to grey. The greater 

 coverts and part of the secondaries are bluish, and the 

 primary quills brownish black with white shafts. The tail 

 feathers are white toward their bases, and generally also at 

 the tips ; but the other parts are brown with black lines, 

 which form a regular band across all the feathers. The tail 

 feathers can be spread out like a fan. All the upper part of 

 the body is finely barred and spotted with bkck, the lines in 

 general crescent-shaped, and sometimes with a narrow line of 

 the same colour running parallel to their convex side, or side 

 next the point of the feathers. On the fore part of the neck, 

 and having its opening under the tongue, there is a mem- 

 branous bag or pouch, capable of containing about half a 

 gallon, and covered externally with a bluish black naked skin, 

 of nearly the same colour as the legs. The use of that 

 pouch in the economy of the bird is not very well known. 



The tarsi of the male bustard are about six inches in 

 length, and the other part of the legs are nearly one foot, so 

 that, when the bird stands up for observation or on the 

 watch, its total height is about four feet. Its walking gait 

 is erect and stately, and its running pace, in which it lowers 

 the head and partially rows with the wings, is exceedingly 

 swift. The female is not above half the size of the male, 

 wants the wiry mustaches and pouch, has the grey on the 

 head and upper part of the neck darker, the upper part more 

 uniformly mottled, and the mottling continued to the tail, 

 which is less produced than in the other sex, and without 

 the regular black bar. 



